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CCFi'RIGHT DEPOSnV 



THE MODERN DRAMA SERIES 
EDITED BY EDWIN BJORKMAN 



THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 
GEORGE BRONSON-HOWARD 



THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 



OR 



A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE DEVIL 



A PHILOSOPHICAL COMEDY BY 



GEORGE BRONSON-HOWARD 



A 




NEW YORK 

MITCHELL KENNERLEY 

MCMXIII 



COPYRIGHT 1913 THE JOHN W. RUMSEY CO. 
COPYRIGHT 1913 MITCHELL KENNERLEY 



T5 2 



^ \ ^ 



THE»PLIMPTON- PRESS 
NORWOOD- MASS' U'S-A 

©ciAseioeti 



^ CONTENTS 

Page 
^» Introduction vii 

List of Plays by George Bronson-Howard x 

The Red Light of Mars 1 



INTRODUCTION 

THERE is to me something typically American 
about the life-story leading up to the play con- 
tained in this volume — a story in which the creation 
and publication of that play will undoubtedly represent 
only a temporary climax. I want to tell it, not only as 
a curiosity, but as something that has genuine signifi- 
cance to the world of letters. The meaning of this 
story, read in conjunction with the work that has 
grown out of it, is that the time when books were 
bred by books only is about gone now. The new 
literature will come straight out of life, apparently, 
and will in consequence have made a decided gain, even 
though it may have lost something else. As it springs 
forth, full-blooded and ready-tongued, we shall un- 
doubtedly hear melancholy voices proclaim the vulgari- 
zation of poetry. But if, on hearing such protests 
rising from some anaemic scholar's cloistered cell, we 
look back through the ages and fix our gaze not only 
on the little followers but on the great leaders — on 
the Dantes and Shakespeares and Cervanteses and 
Molieres — then we shall find that almost always the 
term of opprobrium quoted above has implied a vitali- 
zation of the supposedly menaced art form. 

The author of " The Red Light of Mars " is now 
in his thirtieth year, having been born on January 7, 
1884, in Howard County, Maryland. His father was 
a Baltimore merchant and insurance broker, who, in 
his turn, had a Confederate blockade runner for father 
and an officer in the English army for grandfather. 



viii INTRODUCTION 

His mother sprang from an old French middle- class 
family, which had to emigrate from Dijon after the 
Edict of Nantes. 

George Bronson-Howard studied in a private school 
in London, in the public schools of Baltimore, and in 
the City College of the same place. At fourteen he 
lost both parents, just as he was about to enter Johns 
Hopkins University, his age having been carefully con- 
cealed in order that the examinations might be open 
to him. Instead he became a messenger in the Weather 
Bureau at Baltimore. While thus employed, he sub- 
mitted successfully to the first of a series of civil service 
examinations, each one of which required some skilful 
disingenuousness lest the applicant's age prove an in- 
superable obstacle. During the next seven years, Mr. 
Bronson-Howard busied himself successively as follows : 

Reporter on the Baltimore American; clerk in the 
office of the Secretary of the Navy; stenographer at 
the Brooklyn Navy Yard; reporter on the Brooklyn 
Citizen; press representative for one of the Frohman 
theatres and for one of George W. Lederer's produc- 
tions; reporter on the New York Herald; clerk in 
the Bureau of Navigation at Washington ; clerk in the 
office of the Collector of Customs at Manila, Philippine 
Islands ; assistant to the Collector of Customs at Iloilo, 
on the island of Panay; newspaper correspondent at 
Manila ; member of the Philippine Constabulary ; con- 
tributor of fiction stories to various newspapers and 
magazines; employe of the Imperial Chinese Customs 
Service at Canton ; agent of the Imperial Chinese Gov- 
ernment in Shantung Province ; war correspondent for 
the London Chronicle with the Russian army in Man- 
churia; magazine and newspaper writer at San 
Francisco. 



INTRODUCTION ix 

He was twenty-one when he came East and began to 
produce a series of clever, quick-moving stories, desig- 
nated by himself " as melodramatic magazine yarns." 
The type of hero around which they were built was 
wholly new: a secret agent of the State Department. 
Appearing in book form under the title of " Norroy, 
Diplomatic Agent," those stories met with such suc- 
cess that their author found himself relieved for a 
long time from all necessity of " pot-boiling." 

Since then he has written more stories, three ro- 
mances — one of which so far has only been published 
in Germany — essays, plays, criticism, musical revues, 
etc. He has acted as play reader for the late Henry B. 
Harris, as dramatic editor on Smith's Magazine, as 
dramatic critic on the New York Morning Telegraph, 
as vaudeville impresario at Paris, and as librettist for 
the Winter Garden at New York. He has dramatized 
a novel and novelized a play. He has lived at London, 
Baltimore, New York, Paris, and Nice — to settle down 
at last in a house of his own at Belleterre, Port Jef- 
ferson, Long Island. 

So far Mr. Bronson-Howard has a dozen plays of 
every conceivable type to his credit, some of them being 
wholly his own and some being written in collaboration 
with others. Most of these works have already been 
produced, some with marked success, and others are 
scheduled for performance in the immediate future. 
Thus, for instance, " The Red Light of Mars " will be 
staged by H. H. Frazee during the season of 1913—14. 

There are two qualities that seem to characterize all 
of Mr. Bronson-Howard's dramatic productions: a 
keen perception of the demands and possibilities of 
the stage, and a shrewdly humorous grasp of human 
nature. His command of stagecraft is so facile that 



INTRODUCTION 



at times it strikes the critic as a danger to his art. 
And it has the faults as well as the merits generally 
accompanying such facility. He would probably be 
much surprised if he heard himself referred to as a 
"psychologist" — and yet that is just what he is, in 
his own practical, intuitive, American way. With these 
two qualities, which provide for the framework of his 
art, goes, as its informing and directing spirit, a strong 
inclination to " side with the under dog." 

Edwin Bjorkman. 



LIST OF PLAYS BY GEORGE 
BRONSON-HOWARD 

The Only Law (with Wilson Mizner), 1909; 
Spring Time (with Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon 

(Wilson), 1910; 
Snobs, 1911 ; 

An Enemy to Society (with Wilson Mizner), 1911; 
Rhett Maryl, 1912; 
The Reef (with David Belasco), 1912; 
The Red Light of Mars, 1913. 



THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 

OR 

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE DEVIL 

A Philosophical Comedy 



PERSONS 

(in order of appearance) 

Thomas Vanillity, B. Sc, LL.D., M.A. (Oxon) 
The Hon. Hippolyte Critty, Judge of Special Sessions 
John Magnus , . . Of Magnus ^ Co., Bankers 
William Tromper , Manager Magnus Steel Works 
Mrs. Horace Henry Felix 

Fanny Felix Her daughter 

A Valet 

H. Addington Agnus, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc. 

Noel Onfroy, R.A. . . . Chevalier Legion d'honneur 

The Light 

TopLiss A servant 

Doll Blondin A show-girl 

Schwartzenhopfel An anarchist 

St. Elmo Peattie Sheriff 

A Detective Lieutenant 
Two Detectives 
A Chauffeur 



THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 



THE FIRST ACT 

The study and laboratory of Doctor Addington 
Agnus, Rothlyn, Long Island. 

Entrances: Folding-doors to laboratory; door to 
garden; spiral stairway; door to hallway. 

A long, low white room: white-panelled, white 
hook-shelves, furniture, etc.; upholstered in light yel- 
low and light blue chintz. 

Garden seen through two windows on either side of 
upper door. Folding-doors to laboratory closed. 

A sunny day in early winter: late morning. The su/n 
is almost hlindvng on the white room and the highly 
polished brasses. 

A bright wood-fire burns. 

As the curtain rises: a knocking on the garden door, 
which continues. The knob rattles. The door gives 
way, almost precipitating Thomas Vanillity on his face. 

Vanillity is a college professor, lean, spare, ascetic- 
looking; wears a dark gray English walking suit; tailed 
coat; derby hat. Has typical sad Englishman's mous- 
tache, a " drooper ",* closely shaven lantern jaws. Car- 
ries neatly folded umbrella. 

VANILLITY {evidently astounded at unlocked door) 
Well: upon my word — upon my word! {Picks up 
hat, umbrella, etc., which have fallen, and straightens 
himself) I wonder if he's in? {A slight explosion 



4 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

from laboratory ; he drops articles again) Yes, 
he 's in ! {Picks up articles a second time; straightens 
tie, etCy in glass; twirls moustache; then goes to fire; 
stretches out hands) A-a-ah! 
[^4 second knocking on garden door. 

VANiLLiTY (going to folding-doors and calling into labo- 
ratory) Oh, Addington, Addington, my boy! (A 
second explosion from laboratory, Vanillity goes to 
door, admitting Judge Hippolyte Critty: grossly 
but respectably fat, with an unctuous smile and a 
walrus-tusk moustache) 

JUDGE CRITTY (smiUng genially) 

Ah! Professor! Professor! Come to claim all the 
credit of your pupil's great discovery ? ( Waves hand 
toward laboratory) 

VANILLITY (with painful humility) 

I did nothing. Judge, nothing. A man like Dr. Agnus 
would succeed without my teaching or anyone's. 
(Shows by his attitude some servility to the Judge) 

JUDGE CRITTY (warming hands at fire) 

Well, he thinks you 're responsible. " If it was n't 
for Professor Vanillity," he keeps saying — 

VANILLITY 

I never knew so painfully modest a boy — 

JUDGE CRITTY ( they are both at fire) 

Boy — you 've hit it — boy I The great scientist 
(bows to laboratory doors) retains all his boyish 
shyness and lack of confidence. He even (preeni/ng 
himself) gives me credit for part of his success. Be- 
cause once I said the time was coming when science 
would keep us alive forever. He says that put him on 
the track. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 5 

VANILLITY (with melajiclioly satisfaction^ looking toward 
laboratory) Immortality! No more building up 
just for Time to tear down! 

JUDGE CRiTTY (in a smoking-room manner, ribald) 
And making us independent of women! 

VANILLITY (shocked) 
My dear Judge ! 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Of good women, I mean. They are the only danger- 
ous kind. We learned how to handle the bad ones a 
few thousand years ago ! 

VANILLITY 

My dear Judge ! 

JUDGE CRITTY (going back to the days of boyish confi- 
dences) Tommy: it 's my profession to be a hypocrite. 
That 's why I enjoy talking to you. Being absolutely 
dependent on me, you can't give me away. (Laughs 
foxily) If I did n't have you, I 'd become a Catho- 
lic. I simply can't keep all my cleverness to myself. 
That 's why most people enjoy confession. And so 
I say again : the good women are the only dangerous 
kind! (Goes to cellar ette) Have a drink! There! 
(Pours) 

VANILLITY 

My dear Lytey — 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Nonsense, down with it ! I need you today, and when 

you 're dead sober, you 've got a conscience, (Dri/nk- 

ing with him) Have a cigar! Take it! (Lights 

cigars for Vanillity and himself) 

l^Vanlllity's face brightens as drink and cigar affect 

him. 



6 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Yes, sir ! The only dangerous kind ! That 's why I 'm 
sorry for that poor fellow! (Nods toward labo- 
ratory) 

VANILLITY 

Ssh! Ssh! 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Pooh ! He does n't know anybody 's on earth when 
he 's working — poor devil ! 

VANILLITY 

Poor devil? Poor fellow? Who just won the Nobel 
prize — the most discussed scientist in the world? 

JUDGE CRITTY 

And a year from now forgotten ! 

VANILLITY 

Absurd ! (Seeing the Judge^s solemn look) Why? 

JUDGE CRITTY 

In love ! 

VANILLITY 

With a very sweet girl — a very ambitious girl ! 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Ambitious for herself — j^^es. 

VANILLITY 

But — 
JUDGE CRITTY (looks at watch) 

She '11 be here any minute now: was to meet me here 
quarter to. I came before time to find you; knew 
you 'd be the first to congratulate him ! Another 
drink ? 

VANILLITY 

My dear Lytey — ■ 

[Judge Critty forces it on him; Vanillity^s smile be- 
comes a beam. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 7 

JUDGE CRITTY 

She 's bringing John Magnus and William Tromper 
with her, 
VANiLLiTY (dazed) 
John Magnus ! 

JUDGE CRITTY 

And William Tromper ! 
VANiLLiTY (dazed) 
John Magnus ! ! 

JUDGE CRITTY 

And William Tromper 's the general manager of the 
Magnus Steel Works ! He's going to offer our friend 
(waving toward laboratory) one hundred thousand 
dollars a year ! Chief chemist of the works ! 

VANILLITY 

One hundred thousand dollars a year? My God ! ! (^ 
silence; changed tone; nods toward laboratory) But 
he won't take it! 

JUDGE CRITTY 

He will take it. That 's your job ! 
VANILLITY (starts) 
Mine? 

JUDGE CRITTY 

And mine. To persuade him ! 
VANILLITY (dazed) 
Fanny wants him to? 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Yes ! And so do you. 

VANILLITY 

I? Never! (Springs to his feet) 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Have another drink! 



8 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

VANILLITY 

My dear Lytey — 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Take it! {Having poured it, he forces it on VaniU 
lity again) And so do you ! ( With emphasis) 

VANILLITY 

It 's wicked ! It 's sinful ! 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Have — 

VANILLITY 

No; I won't have another drink! I know you can 
smother every good feeling in me with a little 
liquor — 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Believe me : not a little! 

VANILLITY 

But this I won't do ; I will not ; I won't ! To stop 
a man on the trail of immortality? No ! No ! No ! 

JUDGE CRITTY 

I said good women were the only dangerous kind, 
didn't I? 

VANILLITY 

She wants it? Why? 

JUDGE CRITTY 

For the reason that nine hundred and ninety-nine 
Americans do anything " to be as good as any- 
body. ^^ One hundred thousand dollars a year is the 
income on two million. It will enable her to gratify 
every social ambition. She 's ambitious : for herself 
— I said that, too. 

[Vanillity falls into a stupefied rage; his hand sneaks 
toward decanter; a horn is heard off stage. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 9 

JUDGE CRiTTY (at wtndow) 

Here they are! {Swiftly) Now, mind! {Fiercely) 
D' you understand? 

VANILLITY 

I will not! 

JUDGE CRITTY 

You will! And I '11 tell you why. Magnus put me 
where I am, and he '11 put me on the Supreme Bench 
the first vacancy. Then I '11 put you into the first 
College Presidency ! NoWy d' you understand ? 
\_A knock at the door, 

VANILLITY 

Man, it 's awful. It 's sacrilege, 

JUDGE CRITTY 

It 's life. Unfortunately. But life just the same. 
We did n't make life. But we have to live it. Here ! 
Have another drink. (Pours it) 
\^A second knock is heard; Vanillity hesitates over 
the drink, 
JUDGE CRITTY (impatiently whispering) 
Come on — come on ! 

[yanillity gulps it and sits disconsolate. Judge 
Critty opens the door for Fanny Felix, her mother, 
Mrs. Felix, John Magnus, and William Tromper, 
Fanny is, par excellence, the well-bred, cold, detached, 
sure-of -herself American girl of the upper class, 
very lace-y and lingerie-y. Mrs, Felix looks almost 
as juvenile; she has less dignity; her coat-collar 
and tie might he a man's; her smart hat is feminine 
enough, and so are her small, high-heeled shoes, John 
Magnus has an air and an eyeglass; wears a morn- 
ing coat, vest, and trousers of light gray, and a gray 



10 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 



top-hat to match; needs only a pair of binoculars 
slung over his shoulder to be attired for the races. 
William Tromper is the vulgar^ pig-headed, igno- 
rant, self-made American busvness man. His small 
pig-like eyes show sullen hatred, an animaVs cunning, 
and a savage's determination. He is continually 
ready to assert aiithority over supposed inferiors 
and equality with superiors: the breed that has made 
America infamous. He is dressed in that stiff sup- 
posed-tO'be-correct fashion that marks such people: 
a suit of expensive but ugly, hard-faced cloth, pressed 
into knife-like creases about the lapels and trousers; 
a shining white waistcoat, starched and creased; a 
hard-boiled shirt; a mathematically perfect rhom- 
boid of a sausage-like necktie; shining, creaky laced 
shoes of patent leather, etc. When the party enters, 
and during the first few words of the following con- 
versation, Magnus's valet takes their heavy motoring 
coats, 

MAGNUS 

Here before us, Judge? {Shakes hands) 

MRS. FELIX (to Vanillity, shaking hands) 
The chauffeur let me drive ! Glorious 1 

FANNY (ditto) 

Yes, your hands won't be fit to be seen for a week. 

JUDGE CRiTTY (speaking over his shoulder while shak- 
ing hands with the women) I don't think Professor 
Vanillity ever had the pleasure of meeting you, Mr. 
Magnus. 

MAGNUS (reprovingly) 

I have not had that honor, (Shakes hands) Profes- 
sor — Mr. Tromper — 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 11 

TROMPER (in his best middle-class behavior) 

Pleased to meet you, Professor. Pleased to see you 
again, Judge. 

JUDGE CRiTTY (urbatiely) 

Just had a little talk with my old friend here; he 
shares our opinion, Mr. Magnus. 

MAGNUS 

I do not know that I hold any opinion on the sub- 
ject. Judge Critty. I came along simply to please 
the young lady. 

VANiLLiTY (with a ray of hope and in a tone slightly 
thickened by drink) Then, Mr. Magnus — you 
don't wholly believe in the sacrifice of a career for 
money? (Magnus frowns and looks crushingly at 
Judge Critty) 

JUDGE CRITTY 

The Professor is inquiring as to your views, Mr. 
Magnus. (Looking hard at Vanillity) His own 
are fixed — 

TROMPER 

Sacrifice, did I hear you say, Professor.? A young 
fellow gets an offer of a fortune a year and you talk 
about sacrifice. He has n't had any career yet, 

VANILLITY (with Spirit) 
The Nobel prize. 

TROMPER (sneers) 

Forty thousand dollars for — how many years' study 
and work — 

FANNY 

Dr. Agnus is thirty-two — 



12 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 



TROMPER 

Say twenty-five years' schooling and work to make 
forty thousand dollars — that ain't much of a ca- 
reer? I made that much long before his age. 

MAGNUS 

The case is different here. Yours can be no criterion. 
You married probably on less than Dr. Agnus's 
schoolboy allowance* — 

TROMPER 

Grew up together, we did. She worked and I worked. 
To a man that wants comforts, it 's cheaper, marry- 
ing. 

MAGNUS {smiling) 

Showing just how far apart the cases are. The 
young lady here (nods toward Fanny) does not make 
marriage cheaper. 

FANNY (correctly) 

Really, Mr. Magnus — 

MAGNUS 

I withdraw, with apologies. 

FANNY 

But don't you want Addington to do this? 

MAGNUS 

I have n't been conscious of wanting anything these 
many years, Fanny. 
MRS. FELIX (smiling) 

You don't need to be, John. You lift your eyebrows 
and people hustle. You get what you want before 
you 're conscious of wanting it. But you do want Dr. 
Agnus to take his offer (points to Tromper), don't 
you? 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 13 

MAGNUS 

Do I, Tromper? 

TROMPER 

Well, sir — 

MRS. FELIX 

He means, shall he tell the truth? 

MAGNUS 

The lady wishes you to tell the truth, Tromper. 

TROMPER 

Well, sir — 

MRS. FELIX 

Take your time. A business man can't speak the 
truth so quickly. That takes practice. 

TROMPER (to Magnus) 

Well, sir, if what you said about the young doctor is 
true — 

FANNY {triumpJiantly) 

And it is true. I told him, myself. 

TROMPER 

That one chemical discovery of his alone will save 
the mills — I would n't undertake to say how much 
— that is, if he can do it ! 

FANNY 

He can! 

MAGNUS 

Well.? 

FANNY 

Well? (Her eyes turn toward the laboratory) 

MAGNUS 

He is in apparently. (To the others) We are all 
agreed upon the matter? 



14 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

JUDGE CRiTTY {hastily) 

I can answer for Professor Vanillity and myself. 

FANNY 

And I for mother ! 

MRS. FELIX 

I think it is a shame, Fanny. 

MAGNUS 

Apparently Tromper answers for me. 

JUDGE CRITTY 

I think we can convince the young man where his 
duty lies — 

MRS. FELIX 

I wish I could convince the lot of you where your 
duty lies ! Can't you see that all this comes from 
not giving women the vote long ago ? 

FANNY 

Mother, dear ! — exercise your monomania at any 
other time than this ! 
MAGNUS (to Mrs, Felix, amused) 
Really? 

MRS. FELIX 

Really ! When a woman is allowed to figure out her 
duty to the nation, she '11 want her husband to give 
it his best, instead of giving his best to her, 

FANNY 

What nonsense, mother! A man's first duty is to 
his home — 

MRS. FELIX 

Give them the vote, and they '11 sacrifice the home to 
make the nation. 
MAGNUS (seated, crossing legs) 

Ladies, proceed ! This is strangely interesting to me. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 15 

MRS. FELIX 

It will be more than interesting to you when we win, 
John Magnus. Why do you control the money- 
market of America? Because women, having no in- 
terest in business, urge their men to make as much 
money as they can. They can do this only by taking 
advantage of other people's weakness ; not realiz- 
ing that, if they do this to weaker people, stronger 
men will do it to them. And so it 's dog eat dog, 
and as you 're the biggest one in the kennel you eat 
them all — 

FANNY 

Mother! Are you losing all your manners .^^ 

MAGNUS 

Thanks for making me a big dog anyhow, Loo — 
But how would women voting change all this.'* 

FANNY 

Oh, mother ! — please ! 

MRS. FELIX 

Why, as soon as women realize that modern laws of 
business, applied to the home, would make every 
man a thief and every woman a prostitute, they '11 
stop urging their husbands to make more than the 
next man — 

MAGNUS 

Loo ! I hereby subscribe any reasonable sum you 
say to the cause of suffrage — thereby planning my 
own downfall ! — 

MRS. FELIX 

Or showing your contempt ! — Well ! you 're amus- 
ing anyhow, John Magnus. If somebody could 
make you take things seriously, you 'd be as great 
a man as your subsidized newspapers sa2/ you are — 



16 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

JUDGE CEITTY 

Really, my dear Mrs. Felix; — even the hysterical 
newspapers admit Mr. Magnus is a great man ! 

MAGNUS 

My dear press-agent — we are in the presence of 
my friends, not of the public. You may consider 
yourself off duty. 

MRS. FELIX 

No man can be selfish and great. Mr. Magnus only 
amuses himself by playing a game with the public. 
But how he can be amused by winning games from 
his inferiors, I don't know. That 's the kink in his 
greatness. 

MAGNUS 

I have just begun to realize their inferiority, Loo. 
That's why the game begins to bore me — 

MRS. FELIX 

Start teaching them instead of beating them, then. 

MAGNUS 

Anything to get back my interest in life ! How shall 
I begin .f* 

MRS. FELIX 

By endowing that brilliant boy in there to carry on 
his search for immortality — give him some of your 
useless millions. 

FANNY 

Mother ! He is n't a beggar. He can give himself 
and me everything we need by work. 

MRS. FELIX 

Yes, but can he give the world everything — 

TROMPER 

He can give the world more iron rails for railroads ; 
more armor-plate for battleships — 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 17 

MRS. FELIX 

More money for Magnus, you mean. Railroads and 
battleships never made anybody wiser or happier — 

VANILLITY 

Oh, really, Mrs. Felix — travel — 

MES. FELIX 

Whisking past interesting places at a mile a minute 
is n't travelling. That 's moving pictures for the 
rich. (To Magnus) John, with your money trans- 
lated into real power — not petty authority — 
you '11 go down to history as big a man as the boy 
in there — your name linked with his — 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Pardon me, Mrs. Felix; his name linked with Mr. 
Magnus. 

MES. FELIX 

No. The boy is a fool at everything except his work. 
But his wisdom in that is greater than all of yours, 
John Magnus. 
[Judge Critty lifts his hands, about to protest, 

MAGNUS 

If he can make men immortal, certainly — 
\_Judge Critty subsides, 

MES. FELIX 

Well, at twenty-nine he 's made animals' hearts and 
lungs immortal. In fifty years, endowed with mil- 
lions — 
[Magnus nods. 

MES. FELIX 

You do see, don't you? Now, will you bury that 
talent in a vulgar manufactory — 



18 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

TROMPER (offended) 

Vulgar! Why, some of our men come to work in 
their own automobiles. 

MRS. FELIX 

Prosaic manufactory, then. (To Magnus) Remem- 
ber, when you bury him, you bury your own chance 
to be a great man ! Whoever heard of a mere money- 
maker in history unless as the patron of artists, 
writers, or scientists? 

MAGNUS 

Loo, I 've a good mind to make you marry me ! I 
believe you 'd make life interesting again — 

MRS. FELIX 

You 'd have to change a good many of your ways 
before you can do that. I admire your brains, but 
what's the sense of having them when they are n't 
put to any good use? Will you endow the boy? 
(Nods toward laboratory) 

MAGNUS 

Yes. 

MRS. FELIX 

A few more answers like that, and I '11 say " yes " 
to you. 

MAGNUS 

I '11 endow him — to please you. But I demand in- 
terest on my investment. I '11 build the finest work- 
shop a scientist ever had: give him ten, twenty, a 
hundred assistants ; the most renowned scientists in 
the world, no matter what they cost. — He can 
spend any amount on whatever he needs in his work. 
But I '11 have no young society-man business — 
[Fanny starts and her expression grows sullen. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 19 

MAGNUS 

He '11 stay here, on Long Island. And he 'II spend 
no more on himself than he needs to live decently. 
If I sacrifice millions, he must sacrifice something — 

FANNY 

What do you mean by living decently. (Biting her 
lips) The way z/ou live? 

MAGNUS 

No, that 's living extravagantly. (Smiling) 

FANNY 

Mother, Mr. Magnus has just been joking at your 
expense. 

MRS. FELIX 

I see no joke. 

FANNY 

Addington was giving up his work for my sake — 
our home's sake. Mr. Magnus has n't changed that 
any. 

MRS. FELIX 

Addington has only a few thousand a year income. 
Handicapped that way, he might never fully succeed 
in his work. Mr. Magnus makes it impossible for 
him to fail. 

FANNY 

And meanwhile live in this poky seacoast village; 
ten miles from a railroad; not half a dozen nice 
families near us — 

MAGNUS 

A motor will get you to New York after dinner, in 
time for the theatre, the opera, or a dance — 

MRS. FELIX 

Of course, you 'd keep a small flat in New York. 



20 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

MAGNUS 

Oh, anything reasonable — say, fifteen thousand 
a year for personal expenses — 

FANNY (aghast) 

Fifteen thousand! (Reproachfully to Mrs. Felix) 
You see now, mother! 

MRS. FELIX 

See what? 
FANNY (exasperated) 

Why, my gowns, my little expenses come to twenty- 
five hundred, and I don't have half enough — not 
a quarter enough. I wonH — I '11 live in the right 
places and know the right people and do the right 
things — or I won't marry — 

MRS. FELIX 

Silly places — ignorant people — selfish things — 

FANNY 

Mr. Magnus, it was n't very nice of you ! 

MAGNUS (to Mrs. Felix) 

People would much rather do what they like than 
what we like — 

MRS. FELIX 

They must be taught to like what 's best for the 
world. Fanny — do you mean you '11 deliberately 
spoil Addington's career? Refuse this great chance? 

TROMPER 

Business is business, Mrs. Felix. Your daughter 
would make a good business woman. 

MRS. FELIX (to Fanny) 

I hope that last remark shows you how petty your 
conduct is. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 21 

FANNY 

Live on Long Island out of the season? Have a 
poky flat in town and one servant? Never entertain? 
Never meet worth-while people? Be out of it alto- 
gether? I 'm better off unmarried ! 

MRS. FELIX (alarmed) 
Don't say that! 

VANILLITY 

You have the man you love, Miss Felix. 

FANNY 

If the man I love does n't love me well enough to 
make some sacrifices for my sake — 

VANILLITY 

But the same applies to you — 

FANNY 

Women sacrifice enough when they surrender their 
liberty — when they take on the duties of mar- 
riage — 

MRS. FELIX 

But you said you did n't intend to have more than 

one child, anyhow — 
FANNY {shocked) 

Mother ! 
MRS. FELIX (to Tromper) 

Will you pardon us just a moment, Mr. Tromper.? 

(Shows him into the hallway and closes the door) 

You others don't matter, knowing us as well as you 

do. Now, Fanny, what do you mean? 

FANNY 

The duties of a wife — 

MRS. FELIX 

Don't hide behind phrases. 



22 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

FANNY 

If you don't know, mother, it's too late for you to 
learn. 

MRS. FELIX 

Well, I '11 tell you what my duties as a wife were : 
spending more than my husband could get decently; 
making him overwork to pay my extravagances; 
keeping him until four in the morning at silly affairs, 
knowing he must work while I slept it off; flirting 
with every idle attractive man I met, letting him 
think I was a fragile flower plucked by a hand of a 
savage who could not appreciate my fairy fragrance ! 
Those — and neglecting my one child until she grew 
up to be an encyclopaedia of all a woman should not 
be — those were my wifely duties ! 

FANNY 

Mother! You are shocking everybody! 

MAGNUS 

Not me. Loo ! 

MRS. FELIX 

If I had brought you up properly instead of leav- 
ing you to snobbish servants and fashionable incu- 
bators, you might be some man's blessing instead of 
curse! Plain words, Fanny! May they start you 
thinking and keep you from ruining the mind and 
killing the body of some good man like your father, 
who died a bankrupt, and — though our fashionable 
physician friends made it look otherwise — a sui- 
cide ! {To the others) — All of you knew this.'* 

MAGNUS 

Yes — 

[VanilUty hows his head. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 23 

JUDGE CRiTTY {clearing his throat) 

Why — 
FANNY (tears in her voice) 

Mother, you are brutal ! Brutal ! Brutal ! 

MBS. FELIX 

No. You are going to be. 

FANNY 

I believe you hate me. 

MRS. FELIX 

I hate myself when I see what I was yesterday in you 
today. I hate myself for letting that yesterday 
live in you instead of killing it when you were a child. 
I only saw myself as I was just before your father 
decided to finish things. Knowing he would lose 
me anyhow, he told me how fatal his love for me 
had been. " A beautiful poisonous orchid," he called 
me — {breaks down) Fanny, Fanny, Fanny! 

FANNY {coldly) 

Mother, don't make a scene! 

MRS. FELIX {drying her eyes) 
Useless — useless — 

MAGNUS {rising) 

It was all my fault. I should never have made the 
offer — 

MRS. FELIX 

It was the first real thing you ever did. 

MAGNUS 

I mean the first offer — the selfish one — the bury- 
ing one — 

MRS. FELIX 

Cancel it! 

MAGNUS 

It is cancelled! 



24 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

FANNY {almost murderously) 

Mother, when we get home, I will pack and go to 
Aunt Clara's. In the future please don't concern 
yourself about me any more than about any other 
young woman of your acquaintance. — Shall we go? 

MRS. FELIX 

But the boy in there — 

FANNY 

No need to disturb him. He is busy, and no doubt 
happy — I will break the bad news in a letter. 

MRS. FELIX 

You break the engagement.'' 

FANNY 

Oh, no, indeed ! He '11 soon find some other steel 
manufacturer or somebody of the sort to offer him 
just as much. 
MAGNUS (quieting Mrs. Felix's frantic interrogation) 
I see — the bad news is breaking my word.'' 
\_Fanny nods. 

MAGNUS 

You told him, and he accepted.? 

FANNY 

.1 talked to him for an hour over the telephone this 
morning — 

MRS. FELIX 

He accepted — so easily — 

FANNY 

Easily ! — I told him he must either accept or lose 
me — and rang off. Two minutes later he was fran- 
tically accepting — 

MAGNUS 

You should have told us that and saved argument. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 25 

FANNY 

I wanted you — all of you — to make argument — 
good argument — so that he would see it was for 
the best and not sulk and grieve afterwards. (An- 
grily) Mother promised she would not interfere. 

MRS. FELIX 

It was thinking of poor Harry did it. 

FANNY 

Please do not refer to father again — now that 
you 've shattered all my ideals about him — 

MRS. FELIX 

Ideals ! Fanny, Fanny ! 
MAGNUS (fo Mrs. Felix) 

If the boy accepted so readily, I think perhaps. Loo, 

it would be an injustice to cancel that first offei; — 
FANNY {earnestly) 

Mr. Magnus — please — don't — 

MAGNUS 

I suppose Tromper — my good faithful beef-eating 
Tromper — will spread the report that I 'm losing 
my mind if I do — 

MRS. FELIX 

Great men should n't care, John. The mob always 
think greatness is madness. 
FANNY (^impatiently) 
Mother — 

MRS. FELIX 

I only wish there was some one to save the poor boy 
from you, Fanny — I do, indeed ! 
[A ring is heard at the door and Vanillity goes to 
open it. Noel Onfroy enters. He has pointed beard, 
twirling moustache, pointed hands, hair cut en 
brosse; wears black velvet jacket, rich red tie, riding- 



26 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

trousers with white Bedford cords, black patent- 
leather boots; bare-headed; he is smoking a pipe. 

MAGNUS 

I intended running in on you in a moment, my boy — 
ONFROY (nodding to all) 

Where is the Chub? (Nods toward laboratory/) 
Elixir-of-lifing? (With real pleasure) How are 
you, Charlotte Corday? (Shakes Mrs. Felix's 
hand) Where do you buy those pink cheeks? I 
could n't paint better ones myself. 

MRS. FEIJX 

These are n't painted — they 're anger. 

ONFROY 

With Clarissa Henbane, as usual? 

FANNY 

Please don't take liberties, Mr. Onfroy. 

ONFROY 

When I take liberties with you, Lydia Languish, I 
condescend. (Pointedly turnvng his back) Anger? 

MAGNUS (chuckling) 

And women love him for it ; they love him, the cox- 
comb ! They used to pay him five thousand dollars, 
less for their portraits than for the slangings he 
gave them — ( this while Mrs. Felix explains to On- 
froy in undertone) 

FANNY (pale with rage) 

Mr. Magnus, please don't include me in your 
generalities — I am not like other girls — 
[Mrs. Felix finishes explaining. 

ONFROY (turning) 

That one remark proves 3'^ou are, dear Lady Disdain. 
It is one of the ninety-and-nine banalities that make 
up what the average young woman calls her opin- 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 27 

ions. Another is the following remark addressed to 
men who are sane about women : " Ah, wait until 
you meet the right one ! " 
MAGNUS (still chuckling) 

They love it — love it ! Fanny pretends not to ; but 
that 's because she knows he 's married and she can't 
get him. If the boy in there treated you as this cox- 
comb does my daughter, you would n't mind living 
on nothing a year in the Sahara Desert. 

FANNY 

Mr. Magnus — 

MAGNUS 

Oh, I know — Olive was all you are, Fanny, and 
more. Then along comes the coxcomb. In three 
weeks she 's telling me he says he can't afford to 
marry her — and won't I please settle a dowry on 
them so that he can give up portrait painting where 
all the women are wild about him — marry her — 
and settle down to art for art's sake. 

ONFROY 

I'll say this for you, Ivan the Terrible: you were 
game; took your medicine standing up; came 
across with the dowry like a little man, thereby 
earning the thanks of every true lover of art. No 
more pot-boilers^ no more portraits, no more dem- 
nition fool chromos for the demnition fool public ! 
You 've got yourself into history, Kubla Khan. You 
will live as my patron. 

MAGNUS 

The way we poor financiers are patronized ! It 's 
the second time I 've been told that this morning — 
ONFROY (to Mrs. Felix) 

You 've been praising me, Joan of Arc.^* 



28 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

MRS. FELIX 

The thought of you has n't crossed my mind in 
weeks, Sir Egotist. 

ONFROY 

Oh, the Chub? (Glancing at laboratory) Right, 
too! (To Magnus) Endow him, Governor. The 
other thing is damnable — downright damnable. I '11 
say this — and me saying it means a lot — I 'm no- 
body compared to him. (Hastily) Not personally! 
I should have said : " Art 's nothing to his sort of 
science " (To Fanny) One little bit of pink and 
white prettiness stopping the greatest thing science 
ever tackled! 

FANNY (goes to the Judge, stopping her ears while 
Onfroy talks; then tearfully) Judge Critty, you 're 
the only one with the least chivalry. Why should 
I be abused so? Because I want my husband to have 
some pleasure in life? Instead of frowsing in smelly 
chemicals all day — risking his life — 

VANILLITY 

Oh, no, my dear Miss Felix! Oh, no! (Eagerly) 
No risk ! — Not the slightest ! It 's as peaceful, as 
harmless as — as — 

\^A succession of sharp reports like pistol-shots ring 
out. The folding-doors are thrown back and H. Ad- 
dington Agnus stumbles in backward and sits down, 
staring blankly, seeing nothing. Smoke arises from 
the laboratory. As it clears away, Agnus rushes back 
again, examines something through a microscope, 
FANNY (sharply) 

Addington, stop making yourself ridiculous. (She 
goes into the laboratory and shakes him) 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 29 

AGNUS (comes to, as one who has been in a trance) 
My own — my darling! (Embraces her) 

TANNY (wriggling) 

Addington! There are peo — (muffled by kiss) — 
pie here, I tell you — (Releases herself) 

AGNUS (not seeing anyone else, abstractedly) 

Just had a most successful discovery — chemical — 
out of my line, rather — but — (Seizes and kisses 
her again) 

FANNY 

Addington ! Don't you see there are visitors ? 
[Agnus turns and almost collapses; then he turns 
away from the rest again, 

FANNY (taking hold of him) 
Mr. Magnus — 

AGNUS 

Oh, Lord! 
FANNY (pulls hvm out, protestvng) 
Mr. Magnus — and — 

ONFROY 

Hello, Chub! How's the Chub? Celebrated Chub, 

eh? 

[Agnus has, in his embarrassment, been going from 

one to another, shaking hands. 

Your success warms me like 

old wine, my boy. 

. , . My dear pupil; I have an 
(almost -^ I. 1 . 1. 1 
,^ excuse tor navinff lived. 

The heartiest congratula- 
tions. 

Addington — you 're a great 
man. 



JUDGE CRITTY 



VANILLITY 



MAGNUS 



MRS. FELIX 



simulta- 
neously) 



30 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

\^Now that he is nearer, one perceives that Agnus is 
a youthful, enthusiastic, absent-minded genius, with 
a strong face save for his unsophisticated juvenile 
glance. This is now hidden, for he wears heavy tor- 
toise-shell spectacles; also white trousers and tunic, 
heavily braided at collar and sle'eves and along trou- 
sers legs — an old army uniform in fact, with insig- 
nia stripped off, though the buttoned shoulder-straps 
remain. 

MAGNUS 

May I re-admit Mr. Tromper, Loo? (He opens the 
hallway door) Tromper ! 

\_Tromper enters just as Agnus has shaken the last 
hand. 
FANNY (hastening over) 

Addington — the man who made the offer — Mr, 
Tromper — 

TROMPER 

Pleasedtermeetcher — 

[Agnus shakes hands with Tromper, muttering and 

looking puzzled, 

FANNY 

You know, on the telephone this morning — 

AGNUS (turning away: utterly forgetting Tromper) 
Fanny, you didn't mean that, did you? Of course 
you didn't — I know you didn't! Why — after 
me winning the prize — 

TROMPER (walking around and facing him again) 
That 's why we make the offer. Doctor — 

FANNY (dangerously) 

You 're going back on your word, Addington? 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 31 

AGNUS (turning his back, forgetting Tromper again) 
Fanny, I forgot all about it. I began experiment- 
ing and — 

FANNY 

Forgot your word of honor — for smelly chemi- 
cals — 

AGNUS 

Fanny ! 

TROMPER (again, to the amusement of the others, walk- 
ing around to face him) We would n't take up all 
your time, you know, doctor. — After hours you 
could go on with your work — 

ONFROY 

Correspondence-course immortality — a few hours 
every night will open every door for you — even 
immortality — 

MRS. FELIX 

Don't accept, Addington — 

ONFROY 

By no means. Chub — Never! 
JUDGE CRiTTY (clearing throat) 

You have said you valued my opinion, my dear lad: 
you have called me a second father — 

ONFROY 

And Little Red Riding Hood called the wolf grand- 
mother, too. (To Agnus) Decline it! 

FANNY 

Good day to you, Addington! (She is at the 

garden door; Agnus rushes over to her; she 

throws off his hand) You 've broken your word. 
Good-bye ! 



32 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

AGNUS 

Good-bye? 

IThe rest remain farther down the stage, watching 

the couple with curiosity, 

FANNY 

I '11 send your ring and your letters — 

\_The following colloquy is held in half -whispers to 

give impression that the others do not hear it. 

AGNUS 

But, Fanny — 

PANNY 

I told you, this was your chance. I can't wait to 

marry until I 'm gray. 
AGNUS (excitedly) 

But you love me? 

[Fanny shrugs her shoulders, 
AGNUS {wildly) 

You 're tired of me ? 

FANNY 

No, of waiting. 
AGNUS (seizing her wrists) 

You don't care for anybody else? 

[Fanny turns away, 
AGNUS (madly) 

Say you don't ! Say you don't ! 
FANNY (impatiently) 

No ! But I '11 try to — hereafter. Let me go. 

You're making a scene! (Wrenches herself away 

and goes out; he follows) 
ONFROY (viciously) 

He needs a guardian. (Points to laboratory) He 

leaves his wits in there : hat-checks his brains. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 33 

MRS. FELIX 

But he hat-checks more brains than all of us carry 
around everywhere. 

ONFROY 

It 's damnable ! (^At the window) Here he comes 
back — you win. It 's written all over his face. 

AGNUS {enters again) 

She 's given me time to think it over. (To Onjroy) 
She 's gone on to see Olive. 

ONFROY {to Magnus) 

Yes, since you long-distanced, Olive 's worried 
everybody in the house nearly to death for fear her 
luncheon would n't be grand enough for you New 
Yorkers. I told her : " Olive, when an artist enter- 
tains business men, he condescends — " 

MAGNUS 

A favorite word of coxcombs. {He goes toward 
door) Tromper included .f^ 
ONFROY {making a face) 
Oh, I suppose so. 

MAGNUS 

Tromper ! 
TROMPER {swelling with righteous wrath and the desire 
to say " / 'm as good as you are " but afraid to in- 
sult Magnus's son-in-law) I '11 eat at the Club here 
— thank you. {Stalks forward in dignity) 

MAGNUS 

Tromper! {Tromper is immediately extinguished) 
Come along ! 
[^They go out. 
ONFROY {to Judge Critty) 

Olive 's expecting you, too. Don't mind what I said. 
Go ahead. Poo-bah! 



34 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

JUDGE CRITTY 

I take you with the usual salt, Onfroy. {Recovers 
his dignity by having thus made light of Onfroy) 
Professor ! 

VANiLLiTY (to Agnus) 
My dear lad — I — 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Tom! 

[yanillity, feeling very wretched, shakes Agnus^s 
hand. As the Judge's back is turned, he shakes his 
head vigorously. They go out. 

FANNY (outside) 

Mother, are you coming! 

MRS. FELIX (to Onfroy, hurriedly) 

She '11 come back if I stay. Argue the boy out of 
it — do. Addington, listen to Noel. (She goes) 

ONFROY (alone with Agnus) 

Now, you bally ass ; you Simon Simple ; you Babe- 
in-the-Wood; you Hans Clodhopper; you Little 
Claus ; you — you everything that is asinine — listen 
to me ; if you accept, I '11 never speak to you again ! 

AGNUS 

And — if I don't — she won't! 

ONFROY 

More than that, you Lilliputian* brain-storm, I '11 
publish your infamy in every medical and scientific 
journal — in every newspaper and magazine, too, 
not controlled by this money-mad crew. You ! — the 
biggest man in science — to make a nigger-slave of 
yourself for jews-harps and frill-f rails ! Go part 
your hair in the middle and comb it over your fore- 
head ! You 've got a forehead under false pretences. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 35 

Your hair ought to grow into your eyes. Your eyes 
should close together like a smelt's. You ought to 
have a chin running due south. Your head ought 
to look like a chipmunk's or like a Bartlett pear. — 
Bah! 

AGNUS 

Life 's nothing without her.? 

ONFROY 

You read that in a book. You won't be sure you 
know her when the fashions in women's clothes 
change. You 're mad with the madness of a man 
who has never lived with women before. 

AGNUS 

I thank Heaven — in that way — I 'm worthy of 
her! 

ONFROY 

Oh, you fish! You eel! Worthy of her? She isn't 
worthy to carry your coat ! You 're Addington 
Agnus, the man who won the Nobel prize — try to 
remember the name — Addington Agnus, 

AGNUS 

You 've never loved, Noel — 

ONFROY 

A dozen times. And if Olive made me dissatisfied to- 
morrow, I might love a dozen times more before I 
got satisfied again. Marriage made me. It '11 ruin 
you. Before I married, I was a pot-boiling portrait- 
painter. Now I 'm the great Noel Onfroy, the Amer- 
ican Velasquez. Love should serve genius. It 's 
more important for me to paint good pictures than 
to be foolish for six months or a year with some 
woman who does n't know a Michael Angelo from a 
Christy chromo — or who thinks Gibson is a great 



36 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

artist. Now, Fanny does n't know the difference be- 
tween your work and that of some tame rabbit in a 
hutch discovering cheaper ways of tanning leather 
and dyeing cheese-cloth — 

AGNUS 

Olive did n't know anything about art when you met 
her. 

ONFROY 

No, but I soon made her learn. I told her if she 
did n't I would n't marry her. And I did n't, either, 
until she spent a year in one of the Julian studios 
learning how little she was and how big art was. — 
You ought to send Fanny to a School of Science be- 
fore you marry her — 

AGNUS (miserably) 

She 'd laugh at me if I suggested it. 

ONFROY (angrily) 

Vain, sickening puss-in-boots ! 

AGNUS (angrily) 

Noel, you 're talking of the woman I love — 
[Outside a figure is seen at that moment darting 
through the bushes, trying to hide, and finally crouch- 
ing down. 

ONFROY 

Of the minx you love ; the caterwauling, manicured, 
massaged, Paris-gowned cocodette you love — 
AGNUS (furious) 
Cocodette ? 

ONFROY 

A cocotte who keeps chemically pure because she 
knows she '11 fetch a higher price in the marriage 
market — a married kept-up lady — 
[Agnus jumps up as if to strike him. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 37 

ONFROY (sombrely) 

Don't do it. I could break you in two. 

AGNUS (low) 

That finishes us — our friendship — 

ONFROY (with real feeling) 

I 'm sorry — I spoke for your good : to bring you 
to your senses, Chub — 
[Agnus turns away, 

ONFROY 

All right. — Only — you won't accept that offer, 
will you? 

AGNUS 

I intend to marry the woman I love. The woman 
whose shoestrings you are n't fit to — 

ONFROY 

Quoting Chambers — McCutcheon novels again — 
novels written for fudge-munching slatternly wives 
to read on their way to an equally trashy matinee — 
their house-work undone — Fanny Felixes without 
money — 

AGNUS (turning wildly) 

The Devil give me strength to thrash you within 

an inch of your life ! 

[Onfroy catches hold of his hands, 

AGNUS (helpless) 

The Devil give me strength — 

[^The hitherto crouching figure' shoots up outside and 
a face becomes visible at the window. Neither one of 
the men inside sees it, 

ONFROY 

You fool! You fool! (Throws Agnus from hvm 
and goes out slamming the door behind him) 



38 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

[The face at the window turns to see Onfroy go 
hurriedly hy. Agnus, rushing after him, throws open 
the door, thus disclosing a Tnun in the garden who is 
waiting to enter, 

MAN 

Did I hear my name mentioned? (^Enters. He is 
as unlike the popular conceptions of The Devil as 
possible, being short, squat, respectable, fat and 
Teutonic. He is followed by a queer light thut darts 
and circles the ceiling) You called me, I think! 
(He closes the door) 

AGNUS (backing) 
What! What! 

MAN (^seating himself comfortably) 
You called me — 

AGNUS 

You ? Who are you ? — 

MAN 

My real name is Wisdom. You called me The Devil. 
\_The light flashes across his face and circles around 
him. 

AGNUS 

I — you — ! 

THE DEVIL 

You said : " The Devil give me strength." 

AGNUS 

You — The Devil. (Suddenly convulsed with laugh- 
ter, sits down) 
THE DEVIL (gruffly) 

Oh, I know, I look like the devil, but not like The 
Devil. But this was the only body handy when I 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 39 

got back from Mars the last time, so I had to take 
it — 

[^The light darts viciously at him. 
THE DEVIL (^points to the light, laughing) 

There 's the real owner of this carcass — a crazy 
German anarchist. — He was howling for The Devil 
just as you were — wanted me to help blow up all 
the capitalists — 
[The light attacks him again, 

THE DEVIL 

Tags after his foolish body, hoping I '11 get tired 
of it and give it back, I suppose. — And so I will 
when I find a better one. It 's no fun for a fiend of 
my renowned gentlemanly appearance to be masquer- 
ading as a Dutch comedian. Worse than that — 
the police are looking for it. That 's why I was hid- 
ing in your garden when I happened to hear you 
call me. The Devil, in j ail — a fine tale to take back 
to Mars. 

AGNUS (aghast) 

Man, you should be in some lunatic asylum — 

MAN 

Don't call me " man." That 's a deadly insult. If 
ever a respectable Martian was sick of anything, it 's 
that unreasonable ignorant ridiculous combination 
of poll-parrot and monkey — 

AGNUS 

Poor lunatic ! I must humor you, I suppose. — 
Have you forgotten there have been great men.^* 

THE DEVIL 

Never. I have been all the great men in history. 
All the great men have been The Devil: alias Wis- 



40 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

dom. By taking possession of men's bodies I have 
tried to set up an ideal to strive for, set the race an 
example. And then, when I had to quit and go back 
to Mars, each time the human's little soul came back 
to its body and, finding itself with too much power, 
was responsible for all the inconsistencies, treacher- 
ies, and cruelties that have puzzled psychologists and 
historians — 

AGNUS 

You are a plausible lunatic, anyway. Would you 
mind mentioning who you were, for instance — 

THE DEVIL 

Oh, all the first-rate fellows — Confucius, Buddha, 
Mahomet — St. Augustine, Martin Luther, Moses — 
to mention a few — Shakespeare, Dickens — those 
were my sentimental days — 

AGNUS {amused) 

Oh! you wrote Shakespeare's plays, did you.? — 

THE DEVIL 

All the good ones — 
AGNUS (laughing boisterously) 

Well, that 's settled anyway — Bacon did n't do it, 
after all — 

THE DEVIL 

Yes, he did — I was Bacon, too. 

AGNUS (with ironical politeness) 
Been anybody lately .^^ 

THE DEVIL 

Bernard Shaw was my last appearance. Just be- 
fore my last trip to Mars. I see he 's made good use 
of the plays I wrote for him; produced some very 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 41 

good imitations ; caught my style, so to speak. I 
was sorry to leave Shaw. I was having rather better 
success waking up the world than usual. But I 
simply had to go back to Mars — 

AGNUS (zmth increasing irony) 
Really? Why.? 

THE DEVIL 

It 's my home. When news came there some ten 
thousand years ago that man was evolving into a 
thinking brute, the Martians realized the dawning 
intellect would need a guide. I was the most ignorant 
of all Martians — I had tried to lead a revolt to 
make the body independent of the spirit. So, instead 
of going on to a higher mental state — my soul 
transferred from planet to planet until finally I 
should reach the Sun, which is the perfection of the 
soul — instead of that, I was sentenced to stand still 
for ten thousand years ; to act as the link between 
Mars and the Earth; to make men fit for Mars, 
d' you understand.? 

AGNUS (faltering) 

One of US is insane, that is certain. 

THE DEVIL 

Mars, you will remember, is red. That 's where your 
dim poetic devil-makers got their hell-fire from. 
[Agnus holds his head, 

THE DEVIL 

The only true thing they tell about me is that I 
tempted man through woman to wisdom. I have 
been hated and reviled as wisdom always is. But my 
sentence of exile will soon be over — the ten thou- 
sand years will soon be up — and then I can quit 



42 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

ridiculous man forever and go to school again to fit 

myself for the Sun. 

[^The light darts impatiently around, 

THE DEVIL 

I wish that ridiculous Dutchman's soul would quit 
bothering me! (To the light) Is n't it enough that 
you 've got me hiding from the police, you imbecilic 
disembodied spirit? {^To Agnus) Who was that 
handsome fellow m the velvet jacket who just ran out 
of here? I 've been following him about for days 
hoping he '11 ask my help. Then I could give this 
preposterous paunch back to that light comedian 
over there. (^Points to light) And I hope the 
police get it. 

AGNUS 

You 're a scientific kind of a lunatic, right enough. 
Souls do leave their bodies during sleep or hypno- 
tism or — 
THE DEVIL (^satirically) 

Oh, you 've discovered that, have you? Only fancy! 

AGNUS 

An ordinary lunatic would have pretended he could 
change himself into anything, if he was The Devil — 

THE DEVIL 

As soon as I take human shape, naturally I 'm bound 
by human laws. And each time I get back from Mars, 
I must circulate around until some one calls for me. 
There are always plenty of people calling for The 
Devil. And then I have no choice — I must take 
the first I hear and change when I can. And so I 'm 
chained to this refugee until I get something better 
— like that velvet-jacket fellow's body, for instance. 
{Suddenly) Is he married? 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 43 

AGNUS 

Who? Noel Onfroy ! Yes — I 'm mad — overwork, 
I suppose — {suddenly clouded) worry! I don't 
wonder I'm mad; I don't wonder! {Feels his head 
and closes his eyes) 

THE DEVIL 

Oh, too bad he 's married. I should have thought 
of that before. I 'd rather be a single Dutch come- 
dian than a married Adonis. It 's bad enough being 
tied to one human body, let alone two. (Looks 
around and sees that the light has disappeared) 
The Dutchman 's gone, eh? He goes back to his 
foolish attic every now and then to see if the police 
have found any bombs yet. There are seven sewed 
up in the mattress — and I don't dare take them 
out of the house for fear the police may be watching 
for a man with a suit-case. That Dutchman will get 
me in j ail yet. 
AGNUS (holding his head and looking at The Devil be- 
tween the palms of his hands) You use singularly 
unclassical language for the Fount of All Wisdom — 

THE DEVIL 

The American language. When I 'm in England, I 
use English. — By the way, are you married? 

AGNUS 

I? (Holds his head harder) 

THE DEVIL (understanding) 

Not, eh? Well? (He rises, advancing on Agnus, 
viewing him specidatively, and finally approvingly) 

AGNUS (alarmed, dimly conscious) 
Here ! What now ? 

THE DEVIL (fixing his' eyes on Agnus) You don't be- 
lieve in me? 



44 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

AGNUS 

Why — er — what are you doing? (//i panic) 
Don't look at me like that. (He starts up) 

THE DEVIL 

Sit down ! 

\_Agnus struggles but sits down, 

THE DEVIL 

You called for me to help you. I'm going to. (^He 
goes to the windows and pulls down the blinds) 

AGNUS 

Here ! What ! (He tries to rise but only sits starkly 
upright with staring eyes. A faint luminosity glows 
over his head) 

[The Devil pulls up the chair close; their knees 
touch. He leans forward, staring into Agnus^s eyes. 
The luminosity grows brighter about Agnus's head, 
rises little by little, flickers and flutters. Meanwhile 
a dull crimson light has glowed over The DeviVs 
head, and now it grows steadily and moves across the 
space until it rests on Agnus^s head, where it settles 
and sinks downward, disappearing, 

THE DEVIL (rising, in Agnus's body) 

Take the Dutchman's body, doctor — I 've got yours 
— (A second luminosity glows at window) Quick! 
Here comes the Dutchman back. Take his body, or 
you '11 be homeless. It 's not much but it 's the only 
one I 've got to give you. Quick ! I need you ! 

[Each of the two luminosities dart toward the sense- 
less body. On€ settles and disappears. The other 
flies viciously around and around the head. The 
Devil lets up the shades, shaking with laughter. 



ACT i] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 45 

THE DEVIL 

I hardly dare ask so impertinent a question — but 
which soul won? 
AGNUS {in the Dutchman's body) 

You scoundrel ! You fiend ! You blackguard ! 

THE DEVIL 

That might be either ! The language of men is strik- 
ingly similar under great loss. Who are you? The 
rightful owner or an usurper? 

AGNUS (shaking and trembling with rage) 
Give me back my body, or I '11 kill you — 

THE DEVIL 

Kill me? You can only kill your own nice attractive 
body. You '11 suffer for any harm done to it when 
I give it back. So don't knock out any teeth, or 
you '11 have toothache all your life. 
l^The light has been darting viciously between The 
Devil and Agnus, 

THE DEVIL 

Oh, go home to your bombs again, Schwartzenhopfel ! 
This gentleman did n't want your old body. When 
he sees how ridiculous it looks on him, he 's liable to 
shoot himself — or yourself. Nobody can love a 
body like that. {He draws aside curtains hiding a 
mirror set in the wall) I leave it to you, Agnus. 
Can you blame me for wanting to get rid of it? 
[Agnus, seeing himself as a short squat German, 
staggers back clutching his throat. 
THE DEVIL {having smoothed down his coat lapels so as 
to reveal a silk shirt, and twisted the carelessly tied 
necktie to a smart shape, takes off tortoise-shell 
spectacles, presenting, instead of the absorbed scien- 



46 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act i 

tist, a young debonair man of fashion) Now — am I 
a lunatic? (^Searches pockets and finds a letter) 

AGNUS 

You — Devil — 
THE DEVIL (correcting him suavely as he exhibits the 
address on the letter) Dr. Agnus, please ! 

CURTAIN 



THE SECOND ACT 

The scene and the time are unchanged, although 
one minute may have elapsed since the last word was 
spoken. During this time Agnus has realized his 
misfortune. His face has ceased to be agonized and 
is now only blank. 

The Devil still stands at the back of the chair, 
twirling Agnus's former moustache and admiring 
himself. 

The light is stationary.^ 

THE DEVIL 

With these slight alterations in your dress, your 
face lighted up with my attractive smile (^smiles) 
and my bold intelligent gaze, you are a handsome 
fellow, Agnus — by Saturn, a handsome fellow ! I 
really believe I 'd rather have this body than that 
velvet-j acketed fellow's — 

AGNUS (pleadingly) 

Don't say that. It 's not much of a body. I have 
all sorts of pains and aches — neglect, you know. 
You '11 be ill half your time. You won't have any 
fun. Now this body (strikes the Dutchman's) may 
not be good-looking, but what's that? It's a fine 
healthy body — a sound body — 
\_The light bobs up and down; as though nodding 
sorrowfully, 

* It must be remembered that when the word Agnus is written, 
it means Agnus's spirit; not his body, that is now The Devil's. 



48 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

THE DEVIL 

In that case you 're better off than you were. You 
ought to thank me. 
\_The light darts at him. 

THE DEVIL 

I wish I could lose that German. 
AGNUS (feverishly) 

I do thank you — physically. But that is n't it. 
I 'm engaged — to a girl. She — she — she won't 
know me in this body — 

THE DEVIL 

Engaged to a girl! Engaged! — {Blankly) Has 
the time been set for marriage? 

AGNUS 

No, but — 

THE DEVIL 

Oh, well, that 's all right. I can get rid of her. 

AGNUS 

Get rid of her? Get rid of her! (Wildly) What 
do you mean? 
THE DEVIL (with a gesture) 

Scat, girl, scat ! Chase her away ! 

AGNUS 

Oh! you (runs at him, fist cle'nched) 

THE DEVIL 

Don't forget yourself and break your own nose. 

AGNUS 

Oh, what am I to do? What am I to do? (Ago- 
nizedly) Oh, don't chase her away. 

THE DEVIL 

What then? Want me to hug her? Kiss her? 

AGNUS 

Oh, my God, no! 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 49 

THE DEVIL 

Well? 

AGNUS 

You don't have to kiss her ! — 

THE DEVIL 

If I don't kiss her, she '11 be kissing me — 

AGNUS 

Kissing you! 

THE DEVIL 

It 's always the neglectful one gets kissed. 

AGNUS 

She 's got too much dignity to kiss a man without 
being kissed ! 

THE DEVIL 

Then she does n't love you — 

AGNUS 

She does love me ! 

THE DEVIL 

When a woman loves a man, she does n't care which 
one kisses first so long as they kiss. I 'm glad she 
does n't love you. If she did, rudeness and neglect, 
even knocking her down, would only make her love 
you more. But women get very dignified when a 
man they don't love ill-treats them. They 're only 
too glad of an excuse to be rid of him. 

AGNUS 

I know now everything ever written about you is 
true. To hit a woman ! To hit a woman ! 

THE DEVIL 

An empty bureau-drawer is best. It makes a lot of 
noise, scares them to death, and does n't really hurt 
them at all. 



50 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

AGNUS 

You devil ! 

THE DEVIL 

Dr. Agnus, please. A very neat little book could 
be written on the psychology of beating children and 
women — for their own good, of course ! Never 
hurt them : that 's very coarse ! A blow should be 
simply a little more effective than the strongest 
word — and should never be used until the last 
threat is exhausted. Of course, if your vocabulary 
is limited — (Shrugs his shoulders) That 's why 
there 's so much wife-beating among the lower classes. 
The really well-educated man does n't need to beat 
his wife — when he can swear at her in seven 
different languages — 
\_The light darts viciously at him, 

AGNUS 

You devil! 

THE DEVIL 

Dr. Agnus, please. (Indicating the light) The 
Dutchman is angry, too. He thinks it 's all right to 
blow up a building with a couple of hundred people 
in it. But to lift a hand against a woman " save 
in kindness " — oh, my ! 
[The light is suddenly still, 

THE DEVIL 

And you, doctor, vivisect dogs oblivious to their 
screams of agony. But you 'd refuse to speak to 
the man who inflicted a harmless blow on his wife. 
Oh, you ridiculous humans ! 

AGNUS 

Vivisection saves many a civilized man. 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 51 

THE DEVIL 

A blow at the right time saves many a civilized 
woman. Women have only begun to be civilized — 
since I posed as a woman once or twice: George 
Eliot, George Sand, and a few others. You don't 
laugh this time as you did when I said I was 
Shakespeare and Shaw — 
[Agnus wrings his hands and walks away, 

THE DEVIL 

You see I discovered — in spite of all my work — 
that as soon as I built men up to a highly civilized 
state, they fell right down again. There was Egypt 
— look at the Pyramids. There was Greece — I 
was proud of Greece — its philosophy — drama — 
architecture — I 've never done so well since. There 
was Rome. What fellows those Romans were — 
owned the world. There was Spain — so did she. 
England! I still have hopes of England under my 
new system. But what happened to the others .^^ 
Smash! Crash! Bang! And I had to start train- 
ing savages again. I did n't realize what the matter 
was — I tried every system — and then, when 
England started to smash, my eyes opened — the 
fault was women — 

AGNUS 

Why, women have always been our refining influences. 
They draw out our nobler selves. 

THE DEVIL 

They draw out your sentimental selves, cunning 
minxes. Men were dragged down, their philosophy 
sapped, their reason rotted, by living with inferior 
creatures. You see, while men were out battling with 
circumstances and learning to use their brains. 



52 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

women were slaves. Had brains, right enough, but 
did n't get a chance to use them. Men played the 
grand act with them {imitating a pompous man's 
tone) : " Now don't bother your little head about 
that, dearie, papa '11 fix it." Well, about the 
beginning of the last century, I realized I must let 
men alone for awhile — and work on women. So 
first, I created an industrial revolution that would 
send women out to work in the world — like men — 

ANGUS {angrily) 

That proves what a devil you are! (Sentimentally) 
Ah, those good old days when every father could 
support his daughter until she married — when 
every wife was in her true sphere — the home. 

THE DEViii (contemptuously) 

That shows how men's brains have gone back while 
I worked on women. I was so absorbed in women 
that I forgot men for fifty years until, thoroughly 
alarmed, I created Bernard Shaw out of an ordinary 
Irish wit by becoming hvm — 

AGNUS (^sarcastically) 

Oh, you were n't Ibsen, then.'' 

THE DEVIL 

Oh, yes, I was Ibsen. But that was in the cause 
of women's education — to champion the New 
Woman — 

AGNUS 

Is there any great man you were not.'' 

THE DEVIL 

No great ones. Well, my work on woman has been 
effective. She 's learned in fifty years what men took 
thousands to learn. In another fifty she '11 be men's 
mental equal. And her sons will be Supermen. 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 53 

Then the world will be able to get along without 

me — 

\_There is a ring at the door, 

AGNUS (jumps up and is about to open the door, hut 
remembers his changed appearance; he peers ago- 
nizedly out of wvndow and starts) It 's Fanny — 
Fanny ! 

THE DEVIL 

The girl? 

AGNUS 

Yes, yes ! She 's come for her answer? 
[Fanny rings irritatedly. 

AGNUS (to The Devil) 

Just say : " I accept, Fanny — go back and get the 
others." There 's no time to explain. 

THE DEVIL 

Will she go if I say that? 

AGNUS 

Yes, yes ! 

[Fanny rings again. 

THE DEVIL 

An arrogant minx, apparently. You Ve trained her 
badly. But we '11 soon fix that ! 

AGNUS 

Will you go — please ! She '11 look in the window in 
a moment and see me — I mean you — please go ! 

THE DEVIL 

What shall I say? 

AGNUS 

" I accept, Fanny — go back and get the others." 
But no putting your arm around her: no kissing! 



54 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

THE DEVIL 

No fear ! I wish I were sure she would n't kiss me — 
[Fanny rattles the knob; the door is opened impa- 
tiently^ and she enters angrily. 
THE DEVIL (^immediately) 

Fanny, I accept: go and get the others. 

FANNY 

Oh, there you are! Why did you keep me ringing 
there like a fool? 

THE DEVIL 

Was that ringing like a fool's? Suppose you go 
out now and ring like a sensible person — just to 
see if I can tell the difference ! 

[Fanny appears dumfounded and cannot find words. 
The Devil smiles encouragingly at her. 

AGNUS {wildly) 

Fanny, I give you my word — 

[Fanny stares at him. Agnus realizes his position 

and grows shamefacedly silent. 
THE DEVIL (introducing Agnus) 

My friend, Mr. Schwartzenhopfel. A very nice 

fellow — with a ridiculous name. 

[The light darts at him viciously. 

THE DEVIL 

Heard me speak so much of you — feels like an old 
friend. — Call her " Fanny," Schwartzenhopfel, 
Call him " Hop," Fanny — " Hop " for short. 
FANNY (recovering her breath) 
You 've been drinking ! 

THE DEVIL 

You must learn to love Hop, Fanny. If I should 
die, I should never want you to marry anyone but 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 55 

Hop. {With a tremendous slap on Agnus^s hack) 
[The light darts, 

FANNY 

I can't understand your conduct, Addington? I'm 
at a loss! 

THE DEVIL 

Why — 

[Agnus punches him in the ribs. 

THE DEVIL (recollecting) 

Oh! it's all right, Fanny. It's all right! (Care- 
iully) Fanny — I — accept — go — and — get — 
the — others — 

FANNY 

You do accept.? 

THE DEVIL 

Fanny, I accept. Go and get the others. 

FANNY 

You accept — 

THE DEVIL 

Fanny, I accept. Go and — 

FANNY (kissing him) 
You dear old darling! 

[The Demi puts his arm about her with a sly wink 
at the raging Agnus. 

FANNY 

Now you can set the wedding for any date you 
please — next month if you like — 
[The Devil takes his arm away. 

FANNY 

You 've made me the happiest girl in the world — 
(Kisses him again) 



56 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

THE DEVIL (in a hollow tone) 
Go and get the others. 

FANNY 

I will. I will. Oh, you dear! (Kisses him again 
and goes out through the upper door vn the rear) ' 
[^The Devil turns a look of reproachful and frigid 
dignity on Agnus, The light dances about in joyful 
hatred. 
THE DEVIL (^to the light) 

Get out of here, you Teutonic accident! (To 
Agnus) Dug a little share for me, didn't you? 
Married next month! 

AGNUS (alarmed) 

I don't want her to marry you. 

THE DEVIL 

Then why tell me to " accept, Fanny, go and get 
the others," eh.^* 

AGNUS 

Did n't have to have time to explain everything to 
you? 

THE DEVIL 

What did I accept? 

AGNUS 

One hundred thousand dollars a year: chief chemist 
to the John Magnus works — 

THE DEVIL 

Who are " the others " she went to get ? 

AGNUS 

John Magnus — 

THE DEVIL (interrupting) 

The richest man in the world — is n't he? 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 57 

AGNUS (^contemptuously) 

I thought The Devil knew everything — 

THE DEVIL 

Eyery thing worth knowing — but I can't keep track 
*■ of the petty things. 

AGNUS 

Petty? John Magnus — while not the richest man 

— controls the money-market. Petty? 

THE DEVIL 

Any man with brains enough to control money- 
markets might be a fifth-rate scientist, a fourth-rate 
painter, or a third-rate author! He must be petty 
if he 's willing to be nothing but a first-class financier. 
One thing I never was — a financier ! Could n't 
waste my time. Financiers, lawyers, stock-jobbers, 
and thieves generally are the tumors on the human 
race! When I get through training women, their 
superman sons will be the surgeons who remove those 
tumors — (Suddenly) I see! She wants you to 
give up science for a paying job under Magnus 

— eh? 

AGNUS 

Why — 

THE DEVIL 

Enough ! What was your line ? 

AGNUS 

Well — to explain quickly — but not quite accu- 
rately — immortality — 

THE DEVIL 

The devil you say ! Pardon my using human terms ! 
But — immortality ! 



58 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

AGNUS 

I 've made an animal's functions live after the animal 
died. 

THE DEVIL 

That 's enough. And without my help ! Why, that 
was my very next job! To take some scientist's 
body for a few years and start the world on the 
path toward longer life. Of course, immortality of 
the body is all rot. It 's bound to wear out some 
time. But — five hundred years — that 's possible. 
It would save putting souls back into new-borns. 
For it takes a hundred ordinary human lives to be 
ready for Mars. Out of all the billions of men 
who have lived, we have only a few thousand earth- 
people up there. The second-rate geniuses — 
Napoleon, Caesar, George Washington, Tamerlane 

— all the second-raters — 

AGNUS 

Napoleon — Caesar — Washington — second- 
raters ? 

THE DEVIL 

Of course! All the first-raters were — (points to 
himself) All soldiers are second-rate. Just as all 
financiers are about tenth-rate — compared to the 
great teachers, who help humanity to progress — 
like — like — (^struck hy a thought) like you 
yourself. (With an access of respect) Man — I '11 
do the right thing by you ! Before I quit this body 

— I '11 give you the secret of making men live half a 
millennium. 

AGNUS (the man forgotten in the scientist) 
You will.? (Delightedly) You will.? 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 59 

THE DEVIL (^shakes hands) 

And she was going to make you a hack? 

AGNUS 

Well, you see, she 's a very superior girl. 
[The Devil snorts. 

AGNUS 

And I really should give her the surroundings and 
luxuries that she 's entitled to — being so superior 
a girl — 

[The Devil snorts again, 

AGNUS 

And the only money I ever made was that Nobel 
prize — 

THE DEVIL (^starting) 

What? You won the Nobel prize? 

[Agnus nods. 
THE DEVIL (^astounded) 

By Saturn, you 're the most startling combination 

of ass and genius I ever met! Such modesty is 

actually first-rate — 

AGNUS (deprecatorily) 
Oh, don't say that — 

THE DEVIL 

But such infatuation is hundredth-rate. Generally 
to be met with among the middle classes — that is, 
the lowest class of intelligence — 

AGNUS 

The middle class — lowest? 

THE DEVIL 

Creatures of law and respectability always are. 
Aristocracy is lower-class people getting intelligence. 



60 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

Middle-class people only get money. There are 
hardly any American aristocrats — and those few 
live abroad — 

AGNUS 

Nonsense ! You would n't call Miss Felix middle- 
class. 

THE DEVIL 

Miss Felix? 

AGNUS 

The young lady — 

THE DEVIL 

A person who 'd burn up your genius in the fire 
that boils the pot.? Worse than middle-class — 
worthless — 
AGNUS (violently) 
Sir — 

THE DEVIL 

How can I get rid of her.? For your own sake: how 
can I get rid of her.? 
[Agnus clenches his fists, 

THE DEVIL 

I must play Davy Garrick again — do something to 
disgust her — 
AGNUS {violently ironical) 

Just treat her as you did a moment ago. 

THE DEVIL 

Trouble is : she left this room loving me — twenty 
times better than she ever loved you. How can I 
help you — help humanity — with a drab like that 
at my heels — ? 

AGNUS 

You — (about to strike) 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 61 

THE DEVIL (laughs) 

Go on: disfigure yourself! 

l^Agnus wrings his hands, 
THE DEVIL (crosses and recrosses the room; stares 

moodily out of window with his hands behind hack; 

then sudderdy pointing outside the window) Who 's 

that? 
AGNUS (^crossing and looking out) 

That actressy-looking creature? 
THE DEVIL (impatiently) 

Yes, yes — who is she ? 

AGNUS 

Looking for lodgings, I believe. Had the imperti- 
nence to apply here — 

THE DEVIL (gloomily) 

She 's found them by this time, eh? 

AGNUS (with dignity) 

Nobody here takes lodgers. And the inn — the 
hotel — is for men only — 

THE DEVIL 

Hurrah!! (He dashes out through the door and 

disappears; his voice is heard outside) Hi, there! 

Wait a minute! 

l^The light settles sympathetically on Agnus^s 

shoulder. 
AGNUS (to the light) 

Poor devil ! You 're worse off than I am. 

[The light wags dolefully, 
AGNUS (excitedly) 

He's bringing her back — bringing her — in — 

here — 
THE DEVIL (outside) 

This way, Miss Blondin! 



62 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

[^The Devil enters together with Doll Blondiriy who 
is typical of the Broadway idea of refinement 
and taste: dark blue Norfolk jacket suit; small 
French skull-cap with tassel, her curly hair escaping 
from beneath it; high collar and jabot of lace that 
falls almost to her belt; short vamp suede pumps 
without toe-cap; preposterously high Cuban heels. 
The combination of country suit with city shoes, of 
jabot and lingerie waist — instead of tailored waist 
and plain collar and tie — with cap suitable only for 
evening wear, serve to mark her as one who dresses 
with instinctive taste but without the consistency of 
the upper-class woman. However, she is a most 
attractive girl — about twenty-three — and has an 
air of sophistication grafted on a babyish vngenuous- 
ness, which makes anything she says quaintly 
pleasing, 

DOLL BLONDiN (tuming to The Devil who has been 
following her in) I was told here you would n't 
think of taking lodgers — 

THE DEVIL 

I was n't consulted —^ I need a pretty girl like you 
around the house just now. 

DOLL BLONDIN (sUSpiciously) 

Look here — is there an older woman here — a 
housekeeper — 

AGNUS (with sudden wild hope) 

No, there is n't. 
DOLL BLONDIN (to The DcvU) 

Well, mind : no tricks ! 
THE DEVIL {pained) 

My dear girl! 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 63 

DOLL BLONDIN 

I 'm as much the lady (primly) as any you know, 
even if I am on the stage. Anybody 'ud think I 
was a crocodile or some other wild beast the way 
people stare. Not used to seeing girls who know 
how to dress, I guess. What do these rubes know 
about class? 

AGNUS (in anguish) 
This is impossible! 

DOLL BLONDIN (eyeing him; to The Devil) 
Servant ? 

AGNUS 

Madam ! 

DOLL BLONDIN 

How dare you call me " Madam " — 

THE DEVIL 

He 's a " rube," as you say. Worse — a German 

" rube." 

\^The light darts viciously, 

THE DEVIL 

The worst kind of a " rube." (Going over to the 
window he calls hastily to Agnus) Ring for the 
servant, Schwartzenhopfel ! 
AGNUS (violently) 
But I tell you — 

THE DEVIL (pointing to garden) 
Some people coming. 

[Agnus runs over to window; then he runs bach and 
rings wildly. 

DOLL BLONDIN 

I 'm here for studying. (Severely) That 's why I 
left New York where gentlemen know how to treat 



64 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

ladies : real gentlemen — millionaires — that could 
buy and sell this tank town. One of them gave me 
this chance ; a chance mighty few girls get — a part 
in a Vienna opera. No objections to a piano, is 
there ? 

AGNUS 

A piano ? A piano ! 

THE DEVIL 

No objection whatever. (Points to Agnus) My 
German friend will tune it for you. One good thing 
about Germans — they can all tune pianos. 
l^The light darts viciously/. 
TOPLiss (^enters from the stairway/; an unintelligent but 
smart-looking Englishman who wears a morning coat 
with gilt buttons; says to The Devil) You rang, sir? 

THE DEVIL 

The young lady will board here — 
[The bell at the garden door rings, 

THE DEVIL {hastily) 

On whatever terms she says — a room for her piano 
and her meals — and a bedroom — 

DOLL BLONDIN 

And bath ! 

TOPLISS 

There 's only two baths, sir — yours and mine — 

THE DEVIL 

Give her half of yours. 

DOLL BLONDIN 

Bathe in a servant's bath-tub ! I should say not — 
I 'm as much of a lady as — « 

THE DEVIL {interrupting) 
I will share yours, Topliss. 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 65 

DOLL BLONDiN (^contemptuously) 
You must be hard up. 

[The hell is heard ringing again, Topliss goes to 
answer it, 

AGNUS {agonizedly) 

Show her to her rooms, Topliss. 
\_Topliss looks haughtily at Agnus, 

THE DEVIL 

I '11 see to the door, Topliss. 

[Topliss takes the small hand-hag from Doll Blondin, 

DOLL BLONDIN {tO TopUsS, loftHy) 

Next time jou '11 see your master before turning 

people down. 

[Doll Blondin and Topliss go out hy hall door, 

THE DEVIL (^running to hall door and calling after 
Doll) Come down later and make yourself at home. 
[Agnus seats himself and huries his face in his hands 
groaning. The Devil goes to door and admits John 
Magnus, Mrs. Felix and Fanny. 

MAGNUS 

Tromper, the Judge, and the Professor have gone 

for a ride around Rothlyn. I thought — this 

having become a somewhat personal matter — 
THE DEVIL (whispering to Agnus) 

Magnus ? 

[Agnus looks up despondently and nods, 
THE DEVIL (to Mrs. Felix, forgetting himself) 

No mistaking you : you 're one of my trained women. 

Any child you will have — will be worth watching — 

MRS. FELIX {taken aback) 

What! What's this? What? My poor boy! 
(She puts her hand on The DeviVs shoulder) 



66 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

FANNY 

Addington does n't need your pity, mother ! 

THE DEVIL (recollecting himself) 

Mother? Fanny's mother! Oh, but that must have 
been when you were just a favorite of the harem! 

MRS. FELIX (m amazement) 

Whatever has come over you ? You — why, you — 
well — 2/ou of all men! {She seats herself, staring 
at him with a sort of fascination) 

THE DEVIL 

Your husband — 

FANNY 

We 've had enough of poor father for one day, 
Addington. Let him rest in his grave I 

THE DEVIL 

In his grave — good! I must find you another hus- 
band. One worthy of you. For she (indicates 
Fanny) must be taking after her father. 
MRS. FELIX (rises and goes concernedly to The Devil; 
puts her hand on his shoulder) Boy, boy, what is 
it? What is it? (Suddenly) Addington, will you 
leave the room for a moment and (looking at Agnus) 
take this gentleman with you? I wish to speak 
privately with — 

THE DEVIL 

You had plenty of time to speak privately with — 

before you came in. You think I 've gone mad, don't 

you? 

j^Mrs, Felice steps bach, showing that she does, 

THE DEVIL 

You think Fanny 's driven me crazy by making me 
take Magnus's offer? Eh? (Laughs) Although, 
who knows ? I 've been called mad many times before. 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 67 

Wisdom is always madness to the ignorant — - and 
anyone too wise for them to understand is a madman. 
Does this look like a madman? (Turns to Fanny) 
I won't take Magnus's offer and I won't marry you. 
MAGNUS (m amazement) 

You decline — after just accepting? 

THE DEVIL 

Without thanks ! ( To Mrs, Felix, with an air of 
dismissal) I hope to see you soon again. Mean- 
while, I '11 start hunting that husband for you. {He 
smiles amiably while all stare at him speechlessly : 
'all animated by the steadily growing conviction that 
he is utterly insane — although his final words 
impress Mrs. Felix) 

MRS. FELIX (after a breathless pause) 

It 's only a spell. It '11 pass. (To Agnus) A trip 's 
what you need — a long trip. No work. No 
thinking. Just rest. 

THE DEVIL (amused) 

Still diagnosing insanity? 

MRS. FELIX 

Oh, no ! Everyone has restless spells. The excite- 
ment of the Nobel prize — Mr. Magnus's oifer — 
Fanny — 

FANNY 

Don't blame me, mother. I 'm sure this is just what 
I expected — keeping at those horrid microscopes 
day and night. It was for his own good I advised 
him to accept. 

THE DEVIL 

Don't lie, Fanny. 

[Agnus, agonized, makes gestures for The Devil to 

stop. 



68 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act n 

FANNY (^scandalized) 

Addington! If I thought you were responsible for 
what you 're saying — 

THE DEVIL 

Now see here — all of you. Here am I — Adding- 
ton Agnus — the biggest scientist in the world 
today. And here is Fanny Felix — a mere girl. 
And because I suddenly realize my own importance 
and her lack of it, even you (reproachfully/ to Mrs, 
Felix) think I am mad. Think, woman, think! 
MRS. FELIX (gasping) 

But, Addington — people don't change their entire 
personalities in half an hour — not naturally — 

AGNUS (eagerly) 

Of course they don't ! You see it — 

MAGNUS (disregarding Agnus) 

Since the Doctor seems to know his own mind at last, 
I think we had better leave him before he changes it 
again — this being the third change in an hour — 

THE DEVIL 

Don't go, Mr. Magnus. I 've got something impor- 
tant to say to you. (To Fanny) You can go, 
though — 

[Farmy has been so dumfounded since The Devil 
stigmatized her as a " mere girl " that she has been 
unable to move, 

THE DEVIL 

Take her along, Mrs. Felix. Try to train her 
better — 

MAGNUS 

Dr. Agnus — when you grossly insult two ladies — 
my friends — 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 69 

THE DEViii (^impatiently) 

Well, why don't they go, then? 

FANNY (recovering herself with an effort) 

Mr. Magnus — I — (starts for door and opens it) 
[The Devil has turned hack, not even waiting to see 
Fanny go, Agnus, half starting to detain her, half 
holding hack, is altogether wild, Mrs, Felix tugs at 
Fanny from the outside, 

FANNY (in a carefully restravned voice) 
Mr. Magnus! 

MAGNUS 

Coming! (Starts to go) 

THE DEVIL 

A moment, Mr. Magnus. (Eyes him steadily) 
[Magnuses eyes waver, 

MRS. FELIX (coldly) 

When you come to your senses, Fanny, you will find 
me at Olive's. (She goes out) 

FANNY 

Mr. Magnus, will you pardon me — a moment. I 
have one last word to say to this gentleman — one 
last word — 

THE DEVIL 

May it be true ; but I 'm afraid not. — In here, 
Mr. Magnus. (Opens hall door) 
[Magnus attempts to meet The DeviVs gaze and 
fails. He goes out, 
THE DEVIL (takes out his watch) 

Now, one minute is all I can give you. 

[Fanny, restraining herself as hefore, points to 

Agnus, 

THE DEVIL 

Here, Schwartzenhopfel, get out! 



70 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

AGNUS (^wildly) 

I will not ! Fanny — this is all a mistake. This 
man is not me — not I, I mean — not — 

FANNY {bitterly) 
Two lunatics ! 

THE DEVIL {hustles Aguiii to stairway) 

Get out ! 
AGNUS {protesting) 

Fanny, I can explain everything — 

[The Devil pushes him up, Agnus ascends the stairs 

stumhlvngly. 
THE DEVIL {looks at Ms watch again — then at Fanny 

inquiringly; holds watch in hand) One minute. 

FANNY 

You lack even the commonest instincts of decency. 
I 'm ashamed to think my name was ever linked with 
yours. 
THE DEVIL {does not take eyes from the watch during 
the following colloquy) Twenty-two and one-half 
seconds gone. 

FANNY {raging) 

I only want you to know that I loathe and despise 
you. Thank Heaven, I 'm cured of my infatuation. 
If I were to hear you were dead, it would n't matter 
to me any more than the death of any other black- 
guard I had the misfortune to know — 

THE DEVIL 

Ah, you know blackguards, do you? Thirty-nine 
and two-thirds seconds gone — 

FANNY 

What I could have seen in you at any time I don't 
know — I wonder at myself — and I laugh — yes. 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 71 

laugh, I tell you — laugh to think I could have been 
so taken in. I hate you ! I hate you ! ! I hate you ! ! ! 

AGNUS (who has crept down the stairs, reenters) 
Fanny, don't say that — 

[The Devil picks up from table behind him a brass 
ornament and throws it — his other hand still hold- 
ing the watch as before, Agnus disappears in order 
to dodge the ornament, 

FANNY (raging on through this by-play which she does 
not observe) I am going now, never to return. If 
you should see me again, look the other way unless 
you wish to be cut before the whole world. 

THE DEVIL (snapping watch) 

Minute 's up. (He goes to the door to admit 
Magnus ) 

FANNY (detaining him) 

I haven't finished yet. (She changes her attitude) 

THE DEVIL 

Oh! you want another minute, eh? (Takes out his 
watch again and regards it steadily) 

FANNY 

Don't think I wish to detain you — Oh, no ! (She 
laughs sarcastically) Oh, no indeed! 

THE DEVIL (following the second hand of watch with 
finger while echoing the laugh ) Oh — indeed not ! 
Another ten seconds gone. 

FANNY 

I only did n't want your sleep to be troubled — if 
people without consciences are ever troubled. I 
did n't want your sleep to be troubled, I say, with the 
thought of any girl sobbing in secret. My heart is 
quite whole, thank you. I have been simply playing 



72 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

a game all along. You flattered yourself I loved 
you. (^Laughs almost successfully) Oh, the egotism 
of you men — 

THE DEVIL 

And half a minute gone. 

PANNY 

I never loved you — 

AGNUS {who has crept cautiously down again) 
Don't say that, Fanny! 

[The Devil throws another brass ornament in the 
same way as before, Agnus disappears, dodging. 

FANNY {talking on through this imcident, which also 
goes unnoticed by her) Girls must marry some- 
body, you know — somebody — not that you should 
be too much flattered by being called somebody — 

THE DEVIL 

Thirty-five seconds — and a third — 
FANNY {at a loss) 

No, indeed — {Pauses) 

THE DEVIL 

Oh, yes, I assure you — thirty-five and a third — 
forty, now — 

FANNY 

I never loved you — 

THE DEVIL 

You said that before — 
FANNY {viciously) 

And now I hate you — 

THE DEVIL 

You said that, too. You seem to be running out of 
ideas. Fifty-three seconds gone, but I used three 
seconds myself and hereby credit you with them. 
Fifty — 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 73 

FANNY 

I am going — 

THE DEVIL 

And — quite a coincidence — so is the time — 
FANNY (raging again) 
I am going, nev — 

THE DEVIL 

" 'er to return." Are n't you going to say anything 
new? — Too late! Minute's up! (Starts for 
Magnus) 
FANNY (still unbelievingly) 

You '11 let me go like this — without a word — 

THE DEVIL 

Without a word! 

FANNY 

Do you realize I am going out of your life forever — 
THE DEVIL (sighing heavily) 
What a chance! 

FANNY 

Well — I am — I 'm going — 

THE DEVIL 

" Never to return " — don't say it again — 

FANNY 

Oh, you are sorry — Oh, Addington ! I knew you 
did n't mean to be cruel. (She hursts into tears and 
throws her arms around him) 

THE DEVIL (as she hangs about his neck) 
Hell ! Or rather : Mars ! 

l^AgnuSy who has crept up from behind, now urgently 
pokes The Devil in the ribs. The Devil gladly trans- 
fers Fanny to him. 

AGNUS (enraptured, forgetting everything) 
Fanny! Fanny! My Own! 



74 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

FANNY (looking up) 

Ugh ! Ugh ! You horrible man ! 
[^The light darts at her, 

FANNY (wrenching herself loose, pushes Agnus into a 
chair; then she almost screams with lost self-respect) 
Addington Agnus ! I '11 never forgive you — never 
— never — never — (^She rushes out, violently 
slamming the garden door behind her) 

AGNUS (^collapsing) 
Now, you 've done it ! 

THE DEVIL (irritatedly) 

When she was quarrelling with me, you were protest- 
ing. When she tried to make up, you were pro- 
testing. And now that she 's gone, you 're protesting. 

AGNUS 

I 've lost her — lost her — 
THE DEVIL (grimly) 

Dollars to doughnuts, she '11 find some excuse to 
come back. I knew a man once who went all the 
way from San Francisco back to Denver to get a 
tooth-brush he had left at home. Of course, he 
did n't go to see his wife ! Oh, no ! He had quar- 
relled with her — hated the sight of her. But how 
much more he hated losing that twenty-five-cent 
tooth-brush ! 

AGNUS 

If you think she '11 be back after the way you j ust 
treated her, you may know some women, but not 
well-bred ones — 
THE DEVIL (gloomily) 

'' When it comes to a man in the case, they 're as 
like as a pair of new pins." I '11 have to spring the 
little actress on her yet, if I want to get rid of her. 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 75 

AGNUS 

Oh, don't do that ! Don't let her think it 's on 
account of another woman — and such a woman — 
living in the house, too. She '11 never forgive that. 
No nice woman would, 

THE DEVIL 

You lamb ! I 've known women — nice women, too, 
mind you — on whom such a woman — as you call 
her — acted like a magnet. Not that they wanted 
to come back ! Oh, no ! They wanted to save the 
man from an abandoned creature. (Instructively) 
An abandoned creature, Agnus, is any other woman. 
No matter how good her character is, they '11 say 
she 's under cover with enough crime to crowd 
Callao — 

[There is a knock at the hall door, 
THE DEVIL {ironically looking toward hall door) 
Dear man ! The controller of the money-market 
kept waiting by a mere Nobel prize-winner ! Terrible 
insolence! Get out, Schwartzenhopf el ! 
[The light dances defiantly, 

THE DEVIL {pointing to Agnus) 

Oh, I mean — him ! And don't come sneaking down 
the stairway again, or I '11 do some awful thing to 
disgrace you forever. Get out ! See that the young 
lady gets her trunks. (Pushes him off upstairs) No 
peeping, mind! 
[Agnus goes disconsolately, looking hack as he goes, 

THE DEVIL (to the light) 

Schwartzenhopf el, do you know who's in there? 
(Points to hallway) 
[The light dances angrily. 



76 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act it 

THE DEVIL 

The man jou particularly wanted to blow up with 

one of your bombs. 

\_The light becomes attentive, 

THE DEVIL 

Can you hear me? 

[The light wags and then remains attentive again, 

THE DEVIL 

How would you like to have a body again? Eh? A 
better body than you ever had? 
[The light dances joyfully, 

THE DEVIL 

Would you be a good Dutchman and do just as I 

told you? 

[The light wags, 

THE DEVIL 

Are you sorry for all that swearing and temper 
you 've shown since you 've been a light? 
[The light wags slowly. At that moment the hall 
door opens and Magnus reenters, 

THE DEVIL 

I was just — 
MAGNUS {very angry at having been kept waiting) 

Good day to you, sir — 
THE DEVIL {holding his arm) 

Magnus — {Fixes him with his eyes) 

[Magnuses eyes -flutter as before. He struggles, but 

gradually yields to The DeviVs power, 

THE DEVIL 

Magnus, sit down! 

[The dark of an approaching rain begins and grows 
gradually all through the ensuing dialogue until rain 
actually falls. 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 77 

MAGNUS {uith a flash of natural spirit) 
Be da — 

^He means to say: "Be damned to you^^; hut 
The DeviVs eyes drive out defiance, Magnus sits 
down, 

THE DEVIL 

Magnus, look at me! 

MAGNUS 

I — (He tries to rouse himself, desperately, but 
sinks back submissively) 

THE DEVIL 

Magnus ! Look at me ! 

[^Magnus tries to disobey, hut his eyes are literally 
torn upward and into The DeviVs. 
THE DEVIL (^at centre table, turns on electric cigar- 
lighter — an illuminated disk that burns dully) 
Magnus, look at that light ! 
[^Magnus is still staring at him, 

THE DEVIL 

Not me ! The light ! Saves my energy. 
\^Magnus stares still at him. The Demi goes to 
Magnus and turns his head, arranging it as a pho- 
tographer does for position. He points his finger 
along Magnus's line of vision, turning it toward the 
luminous disk. Then he sits down, his elbow on the 
table near the cigar-lighter, and lights cigarette. 
Leaning his head on his palm, he stares at Magnus 
in the growing darkness, the red glow of cigarette 
growing as the light outside begins to die before the 
rainstorm. This red glow lights up The DeviVs face. 
The light bobs closer, inspecting and inquisitive, 

THE DEVIL 

Magnus ! When you went to school, they taught 



78 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 



you: "Honesty is the Best Policy." At church: 
" Love your fellow-men." You went into business. 
Two years later — you were a bankrupt. Why ? 

MAGNUS (in hypnosis: speaks dully and mechanically) 
I would n't buy diseased animals and dye their meat 
a healthy color with poison. 

THE DEVIL 

That was being honest. What else.'^ Speak! 

MAGNUS (same tone, but sleepier) I wouldn't bring 
foreign laborers over to do the work cheaper than 
Americans. The more ignorant citizens, the more 
rascals in Congress. The more rascals in Congress, 
the worse laws. The worse laws, the worse country. 

Worse and worse until only a revolution could 

cure it. Out of a revolution — a soldier tyrant — 
a Napoleon — an Emperor — and three centuries — 
gone to hell — 

THE DEVIL 

That was loving your fellow-men. What else.'* 
Speak ! 

MAGNUS (almost asleep; rouses himself with an effort) 
So, without cheap meat and cheap labor, I couldn't 
sell at cheap prices. My wife sold her jewels. I 
kept books for a former rival. 

THE DEVIL (thumbing Magnuses forehead) 

That 's what you got for being honest and loving 
your fellow-men, eh.'^ How did you get the courage 
to be a crook.'* 

MAGNUS 

My boy — Charles — consumptive — needed change 
of air to save his life — Denver — Los Angeles — 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 79 

the Riviera. — A bookkeeper gets twenty a week — 
(^His head drops on breast again) 

THE DEVIL 

No chance there ! Well ? 
MAGNUS (painfully dragging out the words in spite of 
intense sleepiness) Tried to save enough — no use 

— could n't. — So at last moment I falsified books 

— sent the boy away — (His head drops) 
THE DEVIL (^revives him) 

Then.? 

MAGNUS 

Speculated — to return first money — won — the 
fever got me. I took all I could get from the 
office safe — plunged — won — (Relapses: head 
drops) 

THE DEVIL 

Honesty ruined you. Stealing made you rich. 
Loving your fellow-men nearly killed your boy. 
Hating them saved him — eh? (Shakes him) 
MAGNUS (roused, speaks in shrill voice) 

Went back into the old business. Did what others 
did. Ran the thousands into millions. Bought 
steel-mills with the millions. Froze the little fellows 
out. 

THE DEVIL 

Hating them! 

MAGNUS 

Hating everybody. Needed banks to swing deals. 
Gave a million to politicians. United States Treas- 
ury made my banks National Banks. 

THE DEVIL 

National ! Ha, ha ! — National ! 
[Magnuses head drops on his breast. 



80 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

THE DEVIL (reviving him) 

And lent you Government money to run more little 
fellows out of business, eh? 

MAGNUS 

When I controlled the clearing-house, I refused 
some banks clearing-house privileges. 

THE DEVIIi 

That meant: either do as you said or close their 
doors? When they realized that, you began to con- 
trol the money-market. The National Currency? 
You and your friends are the Mint — the Treasury 
of the Nation. You finance wars — make govern- 
ments — keep out of office honest men who won't 
make the laws you want — {Revives him) 

MAGNUS (drowsily) 

No man can be President unless I say so. 
[^The light darts at him. 

THE DEVIL 

You could put all good men in and throw all bad 
ones out? But, instead, you throw all good ones 
out and put all bad ones in. Those who will do as 
you say. 
\_Magnus sleeps noisily, 

THE DEVIL 

Look, Schwartzenhopfel ! The Law of the Land — 
there ! 

l^Magnus snores. A dim radiance begins to surround 
his head. The light draws as close as possible. A 
'few splashes of rain fall on the windows. 

THE DEVIL (to the light) 

I am going to teach him that while one cannot be 
honest in this world — today — dishonesty can be 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 81 

atoned for only by loving one's fellows more instead 

of less. And loving, helping — 

\_The radiance grows around Magnus, The light 

draws close to it. 
THE DEVIL (^to the light) 

Schwartzenhopfel — come away ! Don't be in too 

much of a hurry ! 

\_The light retreats reluctantly/, 
THE DEVIL (to the light) 

Disobey me once when you become a controller of 

money-markets, and — out you go ! More ; I may 

leave you to linger around in air until somebody else 

wears your body out. 

[^The light trembles, 

THE DEVIL 

It is nearly time. Remember what I say. Else 
better stay as you are for a short time — than for a 
lifetime! You are only the instrument. I the 
player. 

[^The light wags. The radiance flickers above Mag- 
nuses head. A second light rises slowly to ceiling, 
THE DEVIL (excitedly) 

Now, Dutchman, get ready! Go! 
[The light darts at Magnuses head. At the same 
moment the storm breaks with fury. Great splotches 
of rain are thrown at the window-panes. The house 
rocks. The light (Schwartzenhopfel) sinks out of 
sight above Magnuses head. The figure of Magnus 
is left in darkness, the only light in the room bei/ng 
the suspended one (Magnus), hangi/ng from the 
ceiling like a hypnotized bee, and that from the 
cigar-lighter which falls on the face of the Devil,^ 

* In referring to the light thereafter, Magnus is meant. 



82 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

THE DEVIL 

Well, Schwartzenhopfel? 

scHWARTZENHOPFEL (i/i Maguus^s hody) 
Ach Gott! 

[The Devil turns on the electricity in the -fringed 
white candelabrum, whereby the room becomes per- 
vaded with a gentle glow of light. Schwartzenhopfel 
rises, stretches, pats himself; throws out each leg, 
each arm; tries to speak, but is overcome with 
emotion and bursts into tears. From tears he is 
translated into hysterical laughter. The room begins 
to grow lighter, but furious rain continues outside. 
Schwartzenhopfel follows the light around the room, 
pointing at it derisively, his body doubling up with 
speechless laughter each time he points. The light 
moves away with dignity. Finally, to escape perse- 
cution, it flies out of the window, 

THE DEVIL 

Here! That is not right. (^Satirically amused) 

Driving a controller of money-markets out into the 

rain. 

[Schwartzenhopfel, paying no attention, leaps and 

bounds about the room like an unwieldly baboon, 

Agnus reenters by hall door, 

AGNUS (shocked) 
Mr. Magnus! 

[Schwartzenhopfel goes on dancing until he sees 
Agnus in full light. Then seeing himself in Agnus, 
he bursts into another roar of laughter, pointing in 
gleeful derision and following the harassed Agnus 
around, each time pointing and roaring with 
laughter, as he did with the light. 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 83 

AGNUS (turning) 

Mr. Magnus! (Solicitously) What is wrong, sir? 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (after another outbreak, hoarsely 

to The Devil) Did I walk like that? Look like that? 

Oh, what liars are looking-glasses! 

THE DEVIL 

Men don't see what the mirror shows them. They 
see what they look to see. A good-looking, intelli- 
gent, well-groomed countenance for each. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL ( to The Devil) 

I don't blame you for wanting to get rid of that! 

(Pokes Agnus with his finger) Flabby, too. 
AGNUS (gasps out thoroughly shocked) 

You 've been up to your Devil's tricks again ! 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Better trick for me than for you ! Ha ! Ha ! ( Turns 
Agnus around, disconsolately) I don't look a bit 
better from the back ! (Solemnly) I 'd hate to see 
myself undressed. 

THE DEVIL 

The best part of you is talking right now. 
AGNUS (almost howling) 

Mr. Magnus — what have you done with Mr. 
Magnus ? 

[The light comes flying back through wmdow. The 
Devil points to it. Schwartzenhopfel points also 
and begins following the light about as before. 
The light is about to fly off again vn dignity, but 
pauses at the window, 

THE DEVIL 

Here! Leave him alone! (To Schwartzenhopfel) 
You did n't like it when I did it to you — 



84 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act n 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEIi 

That 's why I 'm doing it to him. He 's a tyrant, a 
bloodsucker, a vampire, a murderer of poor men's 
souls. He ought to be hung, drawn, quartered, and 
dynamited. He is — 

THE DEVIL 

You had better keep those sentiments to yourself. 
Have you forgotten who you are? With all his sins 
to answer for.'^ 
scHWARTZENHOPFEL (ceases suddenly to rail and takes 
a cigarette which he lights) I did miss tobacco — 

THE DEVIL 

How could you miss tobacco without a body.? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

It soothes the soul. A fine trick you played me. 

THE DEVIL 

And a fine trick you played me. Leaving bombs 
sewn up in your mattress. 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (^grinning) 

How the police would like to know where they are. 
They searched the room today. 

THE DEVIL 

I shook you just in time — 
AGNUS (^turning pale) 
What did you say? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Searched my room — his room. {Points to The 
Devil) Your room now. Lucky I'm in disguise! 
(Taps body) 
AGNUS (pale and trembling) 

Did they — er — find anything? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (sCOmfully) 

Policemen find anything? 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 85 

AGNUS (^breathing hard) 
Thank God! 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

At least not before I flew away. 

AGNUS 

You left the police there — in your room? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

No, in your room — smoking and trying to think. 
If they think they can think, what do they think 
they can think with? 
AGNUS (m trembling tone) 
Where is your room? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Your room ? Why, over the shoemaker's shop — 

next block? 

[Agnus sits down uwnan/ned, 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

New York detectives, too. Central-office " dicks." 
None of your common country constables or sheriffs 
for me — I 'm a celebrated man. 
AGNUS (i/n a trembling tone) 
You — you are? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

No, you are. From Maine to Pensacola; from 
'Frisco to Vancouver. Nobody makes bombs like 
old Schwartzenhopfel. I hope they don't find those 
seven. They took me three weeks and cost three 
hundred dollars. 

AGNUS 

I — I hope they don't, too. I — I think I '11 go — 
now — g — go — to bed. (He starts for the stair^ 
way) I wonder if they 're still there — in your 
room? 



86 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

My dear sir — I am John Magnus. It ain't my 
room — 

THE DEVIL (^0 AgJlUs) 

You might ask Mr. Magnus to go over and find out 
for you? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Me? Got a photo of it, haven't you? 

THE DEVIL 

No — him! (Points to the light) 

[The light contracts and moves to other side of 

room, 

THE DEVIL (^crossing over to it) 

What 's the use being sulky, Magnus ? You 're the 
only one here who can do it without anybody seeing 
you. Go on ! For this poor fellow's sake anyhow. 
(^Points to Agnus) Want to see him in jail? 

AGNUS (approaching the light) 

Mr. Magnus, sir — I had no hand in this — I am 
as badly oif as you — I am Addington Agnus. That 
man — over there — (pointing) is The Devil. 

THE DEVIL 

Dr. Agnus, please. 

AGNUS 

He stole my body, too, and made me take this one — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Ha! Ha! 

AGNUS 

And now I find it 's a criminal's body, and the police 
are looking for it. Mr. Magnus — please — 

THE DEVIL 

It will make me more merciful, Magnus. 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 87 

l^The light moves sulkily to the window. The storm 
has blown over and the rain is turning to snow. 
However, the light is bright enough for The Devil 
to turn out the candles, 
THE DEVIL (to the light) 

When you come back, wag once — like this (wags 
head) if the Dutchman's mattress is torn up. Twice 
if it is n't. 
[The light flies out through the window, 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (throwing up window and calling 
after the light) Over the shoemaker's shop — next 
block — third floor — you can't miss it. (Puts 
down the window) 

THE DEVIL (to Schwartzenhopfcl) 

Let 's spare his feelings while he 's gone. I wonder 
how big a check he can write. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (cXCltedly) 

I read he could sign one for two million dollars — 
ready money — a check for two millions — Ach 
Gott! That was why I wanted to blow him up. 

THE DEVIL (coldly) 

Well, you 've got your chance now. A chance no 

anarchist ever had before. You anarchists always 

complain you can't get close enough to millionaires. 

You We close enough — 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (tumlng pole) 

What do you mean? 
THE DEVIL (handing him a sharp paper-cutter of steel) 

Dig this (taps it) into that — (Taps Schwartzen- 

hopfeVs heart) 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (tuming pale) 

That would be murder! 



88 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act n 

THE DEVIL 

And what 's throwing bombs ? 
scHWARTZENHOPFEL {protesting) 

I don't throw 'em. I make 'em. I never threw one. 

THE DEVIL 

What 's the difference .^^ 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

I never sell 'em to blow up people. Only houses 
and bridges and railroads and — (vaguely/) — er — 
places — 

THE DEVIL 

You just said you wanted to blow up Magnus. 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL {hanging his head) 

I don't blow up nobody ! 
THE DEVIL {scornfully) 

Socialist ! ! 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL {furiOUsly) 

Socialist? Bourgeoisie! Children! Talkers! Bah! 
THE DEVIL {tapping him) 

Bourgeoisie ! Child ! Talker ! Bah I 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

You lie — 

THE DEVIL 

Do I? {Offers paper-cutter again) Prove it! 
{Makes the motion of stabbing) Anarchists claim 
they would n't let John Magnus live one minute if 
they had the power to kill him. Here 's the power — 
{Offers knife again) 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Teufell Teufel! You are a devil. 

THE DEVIL 

Dr. Agnus, please! {He fingers paper-cutter) 
You know, when the Anarchist Council hears of the 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 89 

chance you're throwing away — poufF! That for 
you — (stabbing motion) I don't know but what 
they 're right. This is too good a chance to miss. 
(He takes Schwartzenhopfel by the collar and 
flourishes the dagger) 

AGNUS 

Here! Quit that! Quit! 

THE DEVIL (fixes Mm with a look that makes him fall 
back) For the sake of the thousands of lives 
Magnus has taken to make his millions — ( tJie 
dagger descends) 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (on Ms knccs, howUng lustily) 
Police ! Police ! Police ! 

[Judge Critty appears at the window looking in 
from garden, sees the tableau inside without being 
seen himself, and runs off with a shocked, terrified 
expression on his face, 

SCHWAETZENHOPFEL 

Police ! Police ! 

THE DEVIL ( throws down the knife and laughs heartily) 
The police.'' An anarchist bawling for the police! 
The police! If the Anarchist Council heard that, 
they 'd boil you in Standard Oil. Get up ! (Sneers) 
Anarchist ! 
[Schwartzenhopfel crawls to his feet shamefacedly, 

THE DEVIL (fixes Mm with his eye) 

I might have known that a man who makes bombs 
to blow up — for all he knows — women and chil- 
dren, would be just your kind of a coward! Oh, 
you human beings! You make me ill! (He takes a 
check-book from the pocket of SchwartzenhopfeVs 
coat) What did you think I gave you this body 



90 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

for, you fool? To kill it? I need it too much. 
Where did you read that about the two million 
check? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

In a London paper. 

THE DEVIL 

Then there 's a chance, it 's true. If you 'd said a 
New York one — Write! — (^Hands the checkbook 
to Schwartzenhopfel) 
[Schwartzenhopfel looks inquiringly at him, 

THE DEVIL 

Pay to Addington Agnus — two million — 
[^Schwartzenhopfel writes out the check and signs it, 

THE DEVIL 

Now endorse it so : " This money is given to Dr. 
Addington Agnus to further scientific researches of 
inestimable value. The amount specified need detain 
no bank official in my employ from cashing it. John 
Magnus." 

[Schwartzenhopfel writes while The Devil is dic- 
tating, 

THE DEVIL intakes the check and scrutinizes it) 

Look at that, Agnus. You should be the happiest 
man in the world. 

AGNUS {scrutinizing the check, the man once more for- 
gotten in the scientist) His signature! Magnus's! 
Why, the check 's good ! 

[It is now snowing hard, the snow encrusting the 
windows, 

THE DEVIL 

Of course it 's good. 

AGNUS 

But — a forgery ! 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 91 

THE DEVIL 

Can you get anybody to believe that coward over 
there is n't Magnus ? Now, are n't you glad I 
happened along this morning? 

AGNUS 

It means — success — 

THE DEVIL 

Wiser people — better world — morals adjust them- 
selves. Forty crooks and one honest man in a com- 
munity, the crooks would elect the honest man — 
because wisdom teaches them not to trust crooks. 
The only incurable crime is ignorance ! 

AGNUS (protesting) 
The only one ! 

THE DEVIL 

Who ever heard of a professional crook being a 
murderer, for instance? Only ignorant amateurs — 
like Schwartzenhopfel here. — If he was n't ignorant, 
he would n't murder. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

I don't murder. 

THE DEVIL 

Tell that to the police. Every bomb you make is a 
potential murder. Why are they looking for you? 
Answer ! 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (reluctautly) 

Somebody used one of my bombs somewhere. I 
guess somebody else snitched. And they 're trying 
to get something on me ! 

AGNUS (to The Devil, bitterly) 

And you say I ought to be the happiest man in the 
world — robbed of the girl I love — of my name, 



92 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

my reputation — in danger of arrest, jail, maybe 
the electric chair ! Very happy ! Oh, yes ! Ha ! 
Ha ! Ha ! Can't you give me a broken arm or leg 
or head to make my happiness complete? 

THE DEVIL 

But think of the triumph of science. (Waves the 
check) What 's one person's feelings compared with 
the good of the world — 

AGNUS 

Nothing — except when you happen to be that 
person. (^Feverishly) What shall I do about the 
police ? 

THE DEVIL {points to Schwavtzenhcpfel) 

I '11 shift his soul over to his own body and make 
him pay the penalty of his own crimes — 
[Schwartzenhopfel makes a dash for the door, opens 
it, and runs wildly out into the snow, 

THE DEVIL (at the door) 
Come back ! Come back ! 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (outsidc) 

So you can switch souls on me ! Not much — 

THE DEVIL (to Agnus, groaning) 

A mad anarchist let loose with a billion dollars ! 
(Shouting) Come back! I won't do it! 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (outsidc) 

My mother always taught me never to put any trust 
in The Devil. 

THE DEVIL (at the door) 

If you don't come back, I '11 run the paper-cutter 
through your real body and rid the earth of you. 
(He makes a threatening pass at Agnus with the 
knife) 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 93 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (outside) 

What do I care? I 've got a better one, and all the 
money I want. You won't be able to get near me. 
And if you try, I '11 have you put in jail as an anar- 
chist. I 'm John Magnus, now. (^His voice comes 
from farther away) And Dr. Agnus is the man the 
police want. 

THE DEVIL {sternly) 

Come back ! Or I '11 find a way to make you ! Come 
back ! 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (^still outsidc but sUghtly afraid) 
Promise then! No devil's tricks! Keep your eyes 
to yourself. 

THE DEVIL 

I promise! (To Agnus) I need him! He can 
repudiate that check. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (stUl OUtstdc) 

How can I believe you! 
THE DEVIL (m awful tones) 

You worm! Doubt me, do you.'' 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL {wMning) 

All right, Captain: all right! (He sneaJcs back, 

holding up one arm defensively) 
THE DEVIL (closing door) 

You disobey me again and I '11 make you wish 

wildcats had stolen you from your mother's knee. 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (whining) 

Well, who wants to go to jail? 

{The light reappears through the window. 
AGNUS (feverishly) 

There 's Mr. Magnus back. (Addressing the light) 

Mr. Magnus — sir — what — what — is it all right? 

[The light bobs once solemnly. 



94 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

AGNUS (relieved) 
It 's all right. 

THE DEVIL 

He wagged once. That means the mattress is 
torn up. 

AGNUS 

I asked him : " Is it all right ? " And he nodded. 
(To the light) Didn't you, Mr. Magnus? 
\_The light wags crosswise, as though it was shaking 
its head. 

THE DEVIL 

He says " no." 

AGNUS 

No? Yes? 

THE DEVIL 

Look here ; we agreed : if the bombs were found, once ; 

not found, twice. (To the light) Which is it? Once 

or twice? 

[^The light wags once, 
AGNUS (wildly) 

Oh ! oh ! oh ! I must get away ! Hide ! 

l^Fanny flings open the door without knocking, 
THE DEVIL (to Agnus, indicating her) 

What did I tell you ! 

\_Agnus stops, forgetting all about the police, 
THE DEVIL (to Agnus) 

Go on ! Get away ! Hide ! Do it ! 

[Agnus stares at Fanny. Fanny advances as 

though searching for something. The Devil looks at 

her inquiringly. 
FANNY (to Schwartzenhopfel) 

Mr. Magnus, you need n't think I came back to see 

him. I left my veil somewhere about. 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 95 

THE DEVIL (^winking to Agnus) 

Denver to San Francisco — tooth-brush ! 

FANNY 

I wish you 'd help me find it and let me go, Mr. 
Magnus. 

THE DEVIL 

So you lost your tooth-brush? 

FANNY 

Mr. Magnus — my veil — 

THE DEVIL 

Veil — tooth-brush — any excuse will do. 
FANNY (ignoring him) 

Mr. Magnus, your chauffeur says the snow 's getting 
deep. We should start immediately. 

THE DEVIL 

You take the car, Fanny. You and your mother. 
You go back. Mr. Magnus stays here. 
\_Schwartzenhopfel smiles weakly, 

FANNY 

Mr. Magnus — you — staying here — with this 

person? 

[Schwartzenhopfel smiles more weaMy, 

FANNY 

Not on my account, Mr. Magnus, please. All is 
over between us. 
THE DEVIL (instructively) 

In moments of anger, the debutante's language and 
the shop-girl's cannot be distinguished. That is 
because — while debutantes are taught proper lan- 
guage for ordinary things, no one can be taught 
proper language for extraordinary things. So, as 
both debutantes and shop-girls read the best-selling 
novels, both go to them for the language of distress. 



96 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

Hence the similarity. ( With college professor^ s 
gesture) Class on Feminine Psychology dismissed 
for the day. Our next subject will be: How to 
Insult Young Ladies so That They Won't Come 
Back. 

FANNY 

You acknowledge you insulted me then.'* 

THE DEVIL 

Cheerfully! 

FANNY 

You hear that, Mr. Magnus.'' 
scHWARTZENHOPFEL {wltJi a Weak smile) 
I hear it. 

FANNY 

And you — in spite of insults to the daughter of 
the woman you profess to care for — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEIi 

What! {He starts violently) 

FANNY 

You continue under his roof — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Well, you see, I like the Doc — the Doctor. I am 
interested in his work. I just gave — 
[The Devil nudges him, 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL {brightly) 

Oh, it's all right. Doctor. I was just going to tell 
her I gave you a check for two million dollars ! 
[Fanny stands speechless. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL ( anxiously^ seeing The Devil scowl- 
ing) Oh, quite legitimate — scientific research. For 
scientific research — er — rightly researched, you 
know — what is two million — that is, to me ! 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 97 

THE DEVIL 

You fool! 
FANNY (to The Devil) 

Is this so? (Sees the check in his hand, takes it 
quickly and stands for a second quiet; then to 
Schwartzenhopfel, bitterly) Two million! And I 
suppose he 's not allowed to spend more than two 
thousand on himself — and wife — 

THE DEVIL (sottO VOCC) 

Say " yes." 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (to The DcVtl) 

What did you say? 

\_The Devil clenches his fists. 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (to Fanny, brightly) 

Oh, no limitations — he can spend anything he likes 

on himself — 
FANNY (eagerly) 

Say half of what you would have paid him at the 

Mills? 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (auxious to regain The DeviVs 

good-will) Half? All! All! No strings to my 

generosity, young lady. I want him to be happy at 

his work. He can buy an automobile — or a — 

yacht — or — er — jewellery — or — anything — 
FANNY (throwing herself into The DeviVs arms) 

Addington! Addington! At last! 

[Agnus clenches his fists and starts across room) 
THE DEVIL (in an injured tone) 

I thought you were going away never to return? 

FANNY 

And would you have been unhappy, dearest? 

THE DEVIL 

. You just said: "All is over between us " — 



98 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

FANNY 

Just to see what you would say — and I saw — you 
grew quite red, Addington — 
THE DEVIL {bitterly) 

Yes — to keep from laughing — 

FANNY 

Ah ! Addington ! You are being proud now. Look 
at me ! How I have sunk my pride, determined to 
get to the bottom of this. I have been wrong. I 
acknowledge it. I had no right to interfere with 
your work. I came back to tell you that — to 
sacrifice myself, too — 

[The Devil stares blankly at her, Agnus nudges him 
fiercely to take his arm away from Fanny. The 
Devil at last takes his arm away. 

FANNY {who has been talking in the meantime) 

But Mr. Magnus has repented. He has seen my 
side of the case, too. We can have a town house 
now, Addington, with that two million — and two 
motors — 

THE DEVIL {sarcastically) 
Oh, can we? 

FANNY {reproachfully) 

Remember, I was ready to sacrifice everything for 
you. I did n't know Mr. Magnus would be so 
generous. And now — the marriage, dear — when? 
[Doll Blondin reenters from the stairway, hatless 
and dressed in a shirtwaist, 

DOLL BLONDIN 

Who 's going to help your man bring up my trunks ? 
[Fanny disengages herself from the Devil and stares 
at Doll: first wildly, then savagely, then catlike. 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 99 

FANNY (tragically to The Demi) 
Explain ! 

AGNUS (wildly) 

Fanny, I can explain everything. 
[Fanny pushes him away. Her look is that of a 
tragedy-queen's as she advances with folded arms 
toward The Devil, who smiles impishly, sure now that 
he has rid himself of her for good, 

FANNY 

Explain, Addington Agnus ! 

[The DevU ignites a cigarette at thef electric lighter, 

shrugs his shoulders and smiles again. 

DOLi. BLONDiN (who has come down to The Devil) 
Well, how about those trunks? 

THE DEVIL 

Oh, Schwartzenhopfel will help you — 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (indignantly, as if to say: " Re^ 

member I am John Magnus ") What? 
THE DEVIL (pointing to Agnus) Him! 

[Agnus folds his arms also and does not stir. 
THE DEVIL (to Agnus) 

Best thing — if the police should look in — 
AGNUS (unhappily) 

What do I care for the police — or anything — 

now! 

FANNY (to The Devil in a dangerously cold tone) 

I have asked for an explanation! 
THE DEVIL (irritated) 

Oh, don't try to Sarah Bernhardt it, Fanny. You 

have n't the talent. Amateurs trying to be dramatic 

are only comic. 



100 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

FANNY (turning suddenly/ to Doll Blondin with a 
^^woman-to-woman-no-foolishness " air) What are 
you doing in this house? Are you the new house- 
keeper, or the parlor-maid? 

DOLL. BLONDIN {half stunned and half admiring) You 
cat, you! 

FANNY (loudly) 

Who is this woman? 

DOLL BLONDIN (arouscd) 

I 'm as much the lady as you ! Howling and crying 
around here. What's the matter? Are you crazy? 
{Suddenly indignant) Woman? Do you think — 
{Her Broadway mock modesty and pretended lady- 
like morality halt her from saying what she means y 
so she explains shortly) I'm boarding here! 
{Violently) How dared you think anything else — 
Woman, yourself! 

FANNY {with a dry laugh) 

Boarding? Can't you think of a better story than 
that? Why should he take boarders? 

DOLL BLONDIN {shortly) 

Because he needs my twenty a week, I suppose. 
\_Fanny laughs still more dryly, 

DOLL BLONDIN {enraged) 

Well, anyway, he ran after me in the street and 
called me in. {Seeing she has hurt Fanny, she 
en\courages the innuendo wickedly) Said price 
didn't matter — he said. {Violently again) But 
have no fear : I won't stay here and be insulted : I '11 
go — 

FANNY 

You had better — 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 101 

THE DEVIL 

Miss Blondin, if the place, or the food, or the ser- 
vice is unsatisfactory — go. Otherwise — stay. 
This lady is nothing to me. 

DOLL BLONDIN (in cool admiration) 
Well, you are a brute ! 

FANNY (to The Devil, seeing the admiration and ren- 
dered wild hy it) I understand now! This is why 
you 've changed so suddenly. The sight of this 
woman of the street — 

DOLL BLONDIN (blazing) 

What? 
FANNY (a little alarmed) 

Woman in the street, I said — 

DOLL BLONDIN 

Oh! 

FANNY 

And you forget your honor, your duty, your 
religion — 

THE DEVIL 

What has religion got to do with it.'' 

FANNY 

Everything. Well, I won't permit it. I care nothing 
for you. I hate you. But there 's a law in the land 
that protects defenceless women — 

THE DEVIL 

Defenceless? Not unless they're dumb! 

FANNY 

And I '11 see what the law says. I '11 publish you in 
every newspaper in the country, and I '11 tell how the 
great scientist ran after a strange woman — a 
woman he knew nothing about — and begged her to 



102 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

live in his house so she would be convenient to make 

love to. 

\_Doll Blondin looks at him suspiciously. 

FANNY 

Then where will your reputation be? Your Nobel 
prize ? 

DOLL BLONDIN (Jiastlly) 

I 'm glad I did n't have my trunks unpacked — 

THE DEVIL 

Miss Blondin — 

DOLL BLONDIN 

Who do you think 's paying for my lessons, my edu- 
cation? Think I saved it out of a chorus salary? 
If somebody in New York were to hear such a story, 
it would be good-bye to taking part of my pay in 
three sheets. (^Puts out her hand) But I '11 run in 
on you every now and then to say " Hello." You are 
such a brute! 
FANNY (standing between them) 

You'll do nothing of the sort, d'you hear? 

DOLL BLONDIN 

Indeed, miss? 

FANNY 

Indeed, miss, and indeed, miss — and as for you, 

Addington Agnus, I'll stay here in this house — 

with mother, until our wedding-day — 
THE DEVIL (desperately) 

By Saturn — I wish I could think of something to 

do to you — 
AGNUS (desperately) 

Tell her the truth — the truth. If you don't want 

her, I want her — 

\_A noise is heard outside. 



ACT ii] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 103 

FANNY 

You! 

AGNUS 

Yes, I! Fanny, listen! Here is the truth! (He 
seizes her, overcome with love, and embraces and 
kisses her) 
[Fanny screams, 

AGNUS 

Listen, Fanny, I am — 

[The noise increases. The door is thrown open, and 
through it are seen a Detective-lieutenant and his two 
TTien, all in plain clothes, as well as Sheriff Peattie 
and Judge Critty. They appear just in time to see 
Agnus embrace Fanny and to hear her scream, 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Here are the police you called for, Mr. Magnus. I 
brought them as fast as I could. 
[Schwartzenhopfel dodges instinctively at the word 
*' Police.'*^ Agnus releases Fanny and plunges head- 
foremost onto the sofa, where he hides ostrich-like 
among the pillows. 

JUDGE CRITTY {pointing to The Devil) 
There 's the gentleman ! 

PEATTIE 

What? Doctor Agnus.? 

JUDGE CRITTY 

He 's as much my friend as yours, Constable. But 
he must have gone insane. I saw him — through 
that window — threatening Mr. Magnus there with a 
knife. Mr. Magnus was — I regret to say — 
reduced to kneeling for mercy and calling for the 
police — 



104 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

scHWARTZENHOPFEL (with shamefaced recollection) 
Oh, that was — that was — well — (Looks to The 
Demi for assistance) 

THE DEVIL 

That was only a little play we were rehearsing for 
charity. Don't you understand — a rehearsal — 
Ha! Ha! A rehearsal! 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

That 's it — play — charity — rehearsal — 
JUDGE CRiTTY (covcrcd With confusiou) 
I 'm sure I 'm sorry — 

PEATTIE 

I 'm right glad — I 'd hate to see Senator Agnus's 
son in trouble. My apologies, Doctor — for these 
three New York detectives too — they just hap- 
pened to be by when the Judge located me, and they 
came along to help me — thought it was something 
desperate. We '11 go — 

FANNY (furiously) 

One moment! I want that man punished. (Points 
to Agnus on the sofa) For the second time today — 
you saw him — he has grossly insulted me ! 
[Peattie looks around, taken aback. 

FANNY (stamping her foot) 
I want him punished, I say ! 

LIEUTENANT (gruffly, pointing to Agnus's buried face) 
Looks guilty. Cap. Trying to hide like that the 
minute he sees the police. 

PEATTIE (takes one quick step forward and jerks Agnus 
to his feet) Here, what about this-f^ Can't have 
ladies insulted hereabouts, you know. 

LIEUTENANT (with a suddcn change of face) 

By God, boys — the anarchist! (Draws revolver) 



ACT n] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 105 

[The women scream. The two detectives draw their 
revolvers also, 

/ 

PEATTIE 

What? Him? The fellow you been looking for all 
day? {Still holding Agnus hy the collar) 

LIEUTENANT 

That's the bird! 

[Peattie lets loose Agnus and draws ancient-looking 
Colt's revolver, which he points at him. Agnus is 
now ringed around hy four men with levelled weapons, 
LIEUTENANT (^taking out handcuffs) 

Throw up your hands, Henry Schwartzenhopfel — 
[Agnus throws up his hands, 

LIEUTENANT 

Fan him for artillery, Hennessy. 

[The Second Detective is about to search Agnus, 

THE DEVIL 

stop! (All stare at The Devil) He's my friend, 

PEATTIE 

But, Doc — he 's a dynamiter — 

THE DEVIL 

No matter, stop ! 

LIEUTENANT 

Listen, Mister — Doctor — whoever you are — you 
can't give orders to the Law — 

THE DEVIL 

Yes, I can; and the Law can give them to you. And 
it does; now! There's the Law. {Points to 
Schwartzenhopfel) The man who makes you a police- 
man ; who makes your Chief of Police ; your Commis- 
sioner ; who makes Mayors, Governors, Presidents ! 
You 're in the presence of Money, you oxen ! Take 



106 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act ii 

off your hats to it — and take your orders from it — 

Mr. John Magnus — The Law. 
scHWARTZENHOPFEL (^Suddenly realizing his 'power) 

And I order you to let Henry Schwartzenhopfel 

alone, now and all the time. Schwartzenhopfel {with 

Ms hand on Agnus* s shoulder) is my friend, too. 
DETECTIVES {moving away in awe) 

John Magnus ! 
FANNY (throwing her arms around The Devil, whose 

look of triumph changes to one of hopeless dismay) 

My Hero ! 

CURTAIN 



THE THIRD ACT 

The same room as beforCy and immediately following 
the preceding situation — not even a few seconds later, 
for the Detectives and the Constable are just putting 
away their revolvers. 

Doll Blondin, her admiration for The Devil growing, 
looks triumphant as he irritably disengages Fanny^s 
embrace. Some hope is revived in Doll of being rid of 
her, 

Fanny^s look is grimly determined. 

Agnus, relieved from a terrible situation, looks for 
the first time gratefully at The Devil. 

Schwartzenhopfel, feeling his power as Magnus and 
enjoying it, has assumed an air of enormous impor- 
tance — by the simple method of flattening his jowls 
on the collar and clearing his throat, thus deepening his 
voice. 

Judgef Critty is divided between his desire to serve 
Magnus and his horror at open defiance of the Law — 
when he knows Magnus is aware that the Law could 
have been circumvented secretly. He has the air of 
saying, " Why did n't you tell me, and I 'd have ar- 
ranged it.^^ Also his manner is extra-apologetic and 
anxious, for he has blundered, and he fears the loss of 
Magnus's good offices. 

The three detectives are blankly dismayed at halving 
crossed the path of one so powerful as Magnus. They 



108 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act iii 

are anxious to retreat, hut realize that some conces- 
sions must he made to the conventions. 

St. Elmo Peattie, the Sheriff, is simply confounded : 
for he is an honest villager, fearing God, and, conse- 
quently, no man. He is shocked at The Devil daring 
to put any mem — Magnus, Taft, Wilson, Morgan, 
Rockefeller, or even Roosevelt — ahove the Law, 
Though he has no authority in the matter — the war- 
rants heing in the Lieutenants hands — Peat tie feels 
called upon to protest in the name of civic dignity, 
and to uphold the faith of his fathers — the faith in 
which Jefferson wrote; on which Burr, a Vice-Presi- 
dent, was convicted of treason; for which Washington 
fought and Nathan Hale died. 

PEATTiE (to the Detectives) 

What 's gone wrong, pardners ? Why don't you 

handcuff that there dynamiter? 
I.IEUTENANT (roughly) 

What dynamiter? 
PEATTIE (points to Agnus) 

Fellow you 've been hunting for all day — 
LIEUTENANT (taking out his note-book) 

Will you swear he 's a dynamiter ? 

PEATTIE 

I ain't never heard of him before. How '11 I swear ? 
LIEUTENANT ( trying to make his tone official hy speak- 
ing sternly, as if determined to get at evidence) 
You 've seen him about the village every day? 

PEATTIE 

Sure — but — 

LIEUTENANT 

Just answer my questions : how has he behaved ? 



ACT III] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 109 

PEATTIE 

I see him going into Pete Mellish's and into Gus 
Hobbs's — 
LIEUTENANT (with Jicavy constabulary levity) 

And — did he try to dynamite — er — Pete Jelly- 
fish — or Corn Cob's — whatever their names are? 

PEATTIE 

Hush, man ! Pete 's our grocer. Gus 's our butcher. 

Prisoner 's human, ain't he? He 's got to eat — 
LIEUTENANT (^making note) 

Bought groceries and meat daily. {Relieved) Well, 

that ain't criminal. 
PEATTIE (^sulkily) 

I never see him dynamite nobody, if that 's what 

3'^ou 're trying to get at. Alius bin civil enough to me. 

Gi' me a cigar once. 
LIEUTENANT (poising pencil with same heavy police 

humor) Ah! Cigar! Loaded? 
PEATTIE (annoyed) 

No, 't war n't 'T was as good as any two fer a 

nickel I ever bought myself. 
scHWARTZENHOPFEL {scandalized as he remembers the 

episode and the price) Two for a nickel! It was 

a — {^Pulls hinuelf up sharply) 
LIEUTENANT {explaining apologetically, supposing the 

outbreak to be due to a millionairess ignorance of 

such cheap matters) An expression, Mr. Magnus 

— " twofera nickel " is two cigars for five cents. 

Rubes smoke 'em. 
PEATTIE (angry) 

Rubes, eh? Well, thank Joshyouway, I ain't a New 

Yorker, mister — where every next fella 's a Harp 

or a Ginny, a Kike or a Polack; where half of 'em 



110 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

don't even talk Amurrican. (Turning to The Devil, 
mho has been listening with approval) Doctor Ag- 
nus, be ashamed of yourself ! I 'm older 'n you : old 
enough to be Sheriff here when your daddy was 
Senator. And your dad, young gentleman, he told 
me to arrest old Commodore Vanderbilt. Yes, sir 
— the Commodore — driving his bosses too fast 'long 
Main Street, endangerin' lives and limbs of old 
women and children. Your dad, he sez : " St. Elmo, 
no matter who he is, any hig man that breaks laws 
is little J^ Little, yes, sir; and why? "Because," 
says your dad, the Honnible Maxwell Agnus, " be- 
cause. Sheriff, people who don't know no better is 
goin' to say : ' If the biggest man in the country 
breaks laws then them laws 'es no good ' — and so," 
sez your dad, " ignorant people start breakin' 'em 
too — " and, sez he, " the law 's like a brick barn. 
Sheriff; taking one brick out makes the walls git 
weak and, pritty soon, the whole blamed thing starts 
tumbling down." 
THE DEVIL (interested) 

And did the Honorable Maxwell Agnus get elected 
to the Senate again after telling you to arrest the 
biggest man in the country .^^ 

PEATTIE 

Betcha he did! People was different then. They 
was Amurricans. And when they found out why the 
Commodore hated your dad; why he was tryin' to 
keep him outa office agin; why, they just swan to 
goodness that was the sorta fella they wanted in 
Congress — what would take up for the weak agin' 
the strong. He was Senator pritty nigh fifteen 
years after — 



ACT III] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 111 

THE DEVIL (smili/ng) 
And then? 

PEATTiE (^reluctantly) 

Wa-al then. Then that there Eye-talian colony 
got so big over to Cove Neck, and, seeing as how 
their votes war only a dollar apiece and a kiss for 
the babies, why, our votes war n't strong enough to 
beat the politicians. 

THE DEVIL 

You see, money has a long memory. Sheriff. And 
it always wins in the end. 

PEATTIE 

But think of all the good he done in them fifteen 
years. 

THE DEVIL 

With the result that the railroad does n't run within 
seven miles of this village and the population has 
fallen to two thousand inhabitants. 
PEATTIE {sulkily) 

Wa-al — we 're all Amurricans, anyway. It kept 
the Eye-talians and the Polacks out. You — can't — 
buy — votes — here — and he {points to Schwartz- 
enhopfel, meaning Magnus) can't scare anybody like 
he kin New Yorkers. (He jerks his head with a 
sneer at the Detectives) Keeping 'em from arrest- 
ing the man they 're sent to git — a furriner — 
not Amurrican, mind — a cowardly furriner that 
blows people up. Magnus, nor twenty Magnuses 
could n't keep me from doing my dooty on sich a 
villin — could n't keep any real Amurrican. {Turn- 
ing to the Detectives) I '11 bet you folks ain't 
Amurricans? 



112 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

LIEUTENANT (who all oloug has spoken with an Irish 
accent, and now, when violently angry, speaks with a 
pronounced brogue) Go on, ye scut! (^He makes 
threatening motion at him) 

PEATTiE (^triumpha/ntly) 

Amurrican! Huhnh? {To second Detective) And 
you? 

SECOND DETECTIVE {excitedly) 

I haf my naduraladion pabers got us goot as you 
or any udder man — 

PEATTIE (more triumphantly) 

Amurrican! Hey? {To the third Detective) And 
you? 

THIRD DETECTIVE (trying to speak carefully) 
I — was — born — in — New — York — 
[Feattie slaps thigh and grins unbelievingly, 

THIRD DETECTIVE (angrily) 

By your lave, Lootenant, I'll — (Losing his tem- 
per, he takes a step forward) 

TEATTiE (clapping his hands in glee) 

You see? Not an Amurrican in the lot. (To The 
Devil) And so it 's with such cattle — and with 
anarchists — for just as your dad said of the Com- 
modore, he 's (points to Schwartzenhopfel, meaning 
Magnus) as much of an anarchist as him (points 
to Agnus, meaning Schwartzenhopfel) — it 's with 
such — that the son of my old Senator has truck 
today. Good day to you, sir, and (sorrowfully) 
may you learn better before you come to my age, 
[He goes out. 

THE DEVIL (to Judgc Critty, indicating Detectives) 
See that these fellows are paid something to keep 
their mouths shut — 



ACT m] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 113 

LIEUTENANT (protesting) 

Now, Doctor — jou know — 

THE DEVIL 

Pshaw ! No nonsense, my man ! That old fellow just 
gone is worth the lot of you. With such men in 
your shoes, we 'd hear no more talk of police graft 
and extortion. 

LIEUTENANT {sarcasticalli/, pointing to Agnus) 
We '11 take this fellow if it '11 please you better — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (thoroughly enjoying himself) 
Keep your tongue quiet, policeman ! — Here! 
{Takes out a handful of hills and gives them to 
Judge) Give 'em these. (He looks for approval 
toward The Devil, mho nods) Now get out: the lot 
of you! 

LIEUTENANT (hurt) 

That 's no kind of language to use to men doing 
their best to favor you, Mr. Magnus. And, as for 
the money, that 's an insult — 

THE DEVIL 

I suppose you want it sent mysteriously? From an 
unknown benefactor who loves your fat housewife 
and your ugly babies. Well — you '11 — take — it 
— this way — (He has snatched the bills from the 
Judge while talking and separated them into three 
parts; now he force's one on the Lieutenant) 

[The Lieutenant pretends to push them away. 

THE DEVIL (finishing) — or — not at all — (He looks 
at Schwartzenhopfel to hack him up) 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (importantly) 
Or not at all — 
[The Lieutenant hesitates, hut takes the money 



114 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

shamefacedly. The two Detectives repeat his actions 
and manners. 

LIEUTENANT {to Schwartzcnhopfel diffidently, after 
looking at the women, the Judge and Agnus) I sup- 
pose {humbly) there '11 be no come-back to this? 
It 's value received, ain't it, sir? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Yes. Get out. 

LIEUTENANT 

Yes, sir. (He tips his hat and goes out on tip-toe) 
SECOND AND THIRD DETECTIVES (in the sajiw manner) 

Yes, sir. (They go out) 
JUDGE CRITTY (to Schwartzcnhopfel) 

Such actions cause talk, sir — 

THE DEVIL 

If I 've promoted even the germ of Socialism in those 
robber-barons' men-at-arms, I 'm satisfied — 

JUDGE CRITTY (stiffly) 

I was not addressing you, Doctor Agnus — 

THE DEVIL 

Don't try that fake dignity with me, you hoary- 
headed old fraud, because you have n't the moral 
dignity back of it to hold you up. Get out, you 
arrant knave ! ( Catches SchwartzenhopfeVs eye) 
JUDGE CRITTY (dwmfounded) 

Mr. Magnus — will you allow me to be so insulted 
by this cockerel? He's either drunk or crazy. 

scHWARTZENHOPFEL (softly motioning The Devil to 
wait) Did n't you say once. Judge, that to properly 
punish anarchists they should not be hanged but 
burned ? 



ACT m] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 115 

JUDGE CRiTTY (with Swelling dignity, thinking that 
Magnus is recalling the incident favorably) I cer- 
tainly did, Mr. Magnus. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

You did n't say anything about the causes that make 
them anarchists, though — did you? {Catching The 
DeviVs eye) But how about a six-months' strike 
prolonged because millionaires would n't pay fifty 
cents more a day to men who work with hot rivets 
two hundred feet in the air — twenty-five per cent of 
them killed every year? How about the wives of 
those strikers who died of overwork and little food 
trying to support homes and husbands until em- 
ployers gave in? How about their children who died 
unborn — eh? Who was it murdered wives and chil- 
dren? And who, after six months, still refused even 
to compromise? Was it any wonder that men went 
crazy? Murder for murder — they said — murder 
for murder. Schwartzenhopfel had such a wife, such 
children, all dead now, and he shouted: Dynamite, 
the worker's friend! (Fiercely to the Judge) And 
so it is n't enough to hang him ? You 've got to 
burn him, have you? Well, what about the men who 
took an honest workman and made him what he is 
today ? 
JUDGE CRITTY (frantically) 
Mr. Magnus — 

[The Devil goes to the garden door, opens it and 
points the way out. 

JUDGE CRITTY (ncrvously, suddenly changing his atti- 
tude) Mr. Magnus, your admission delights me — 
for the first time in my relations with you, I — I 
find it — possible — to — to — be — to be — per- 



116 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

fectly natural with you. You cannot blame me for 
being a hypocrite. If you will pardon me, sir: who 
made me a hypocrite? — 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (disgruutled) 

I did n't tell you to burn anarchists, did I.^* 

JUDGE CRITTY 

Pardon me, sir — theoretically, no ; but practically, 
yes, you did. If my bench orations had n't been pas- 
sionately opposed to everything that even threatened 
the divine right of capital, why, you would n't be 
considering me for the Supreme Bench now. How 
can a lawyer succeed nowadays except through 
capital.? 
THE DEVIL (closes dooT and stands with Ms back to it) 
True enough, Magnus; true enough — {Looks at 
the light, which has hung gravely suspended through 
these operations) 

THE DEVIIi 

The greedy millionaire criminal makes all the little 
criminals. He needs men like this hypocrite here 
{pointing to the Judge) — needs them to save cor- 
porations from fines, their officers from jail — with 
that damnable word "unconstitutional"; just as 
he needs Senators to make trust laws easy to break; 
Governors to sign exemptions and pardons ; alder- 
men to steal city franchises ; bosses to elect those 
aldermen to order; murdering gangsters to kill 
honest voting; and police who will permit the gang- 
sters to steal, pimp and kill, and who share in their 
spoils. {Still addressing the light) And every 
crime of the lot — yes — don't shrink from your 
guilt — even the stealing, the pimping, and the kill- 
ing — is the fault of the greedy millionaire. {Point- 



ACT ni] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 117 

ing to the Judge) Even that might have been a 
man — 

JUDGE CRiTTY {auxiously) 
But, Mr. Magnus — 

THE DEVIIi 

No hypocrite may be trusted upon the Supreme 
Bench, Judge. 
l^Schwartzenhopfel nods. 

JUDGE CRITTY (wUdly) 

You use me — cast me aside — 

THE DEVIL 

Just what a prostitute would say when the man to 
whose worst passions she has pandered seeks to be 
clean again and casts her off. (He opens the door 
again and points) Get out! (He fixes the unhappy 
Judge with his eyes. Unable to resist, the Judge 
follows the slowly pointing finger and goes out) 

DOLL BLONDiN (whose admiration for The Devil has 
grown quickly, as evidenced hy the expression on her 
face as she has sat listening almost with awe) You 
are some man — believe me ! 

FANNY (turns quickly on her at this danger-note in her 
voice, and speaks with an effort at politeness) You 
said you would not like a certain party to hear a 
certain story — 

[The Devil, being recalled to this situation, looks 
hopelessly around, 

DOLL BLONDIN 

Let the certain party go — 

FANNY (glares at her) 
What.? 



118 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

DOLL BLONDiN (glares back) 

I would n't stay where I was n't wanted if I were 
some people — 

FANNY 

And I suppose you think you are wanted? 
l^Doll Blondin smiles aggravatingli/, 

FANNY 

What? 

DOLL BLONDIN 

I 've been asked to stay anyhow. That 's more 'n 
some people have — 

FANNY 

Addington ! You '11 let this woman insult me ? 

THE DEVIL 

Certainly, my dear. 

DOLL BLONDIN 

You see — (She spreads hands and her manner be- 
comes still more aggravating) 

FANNY 

I '11 go and get mother. Even she will see who 's In 
the wrong now. When I 'm prepared to give up 
everything for you — 

THE DEVIL 

But you are n't — 
FANNY (wildly) 

I am. You need n't even have a flat in town. I '11 
stay here. Why, I '11 even live on your income. 

THE DEVIL 

You only say that until you get me safely married. 
FANNY (beside herself) 

I swear it. Addington — I did n't realize how much 
I loved you until I saw you save your friend (points 



ACT III] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 119 

to Agnus) ; heard you defy those poKcemen, and — 
then — the way you talked to that nasty old Judge. 
Oh ! I want you — I love you — 
THE DEVIL (^stepping hack to avoid an embrace) 
Well, you can't have me! 

DOLIi BLONDIN 

You see — (^Spreads her hands as before) 

FANNY 

You give me up — for this woman? 

THE DEVIL (^desperately) 
Yes! 

FANNY (suddenly realizing she is combating Fate) 
Oh, Addington, Addington, Addington — I love you 
— I love you — (She bursts into real tears; there 
is no tragedy in her attitude now, no affectation, no 
theatricalism — just real sorrow and regret) 

AGNUS (^wildly to The Devil) You must explain! You 
must! You must! 

TiiE DEVIL (^whispering) 

Who 'd believe us ? We 'd all be clapped into a 
lunatic asylum. Is one woman to stand in the way 
of science — a big step in world-regeneration? 
Think, man ! One woman against a million better 
men? For the sake of humanity — think! 
[Agnus turns away. It is his tragic moment; his 
face should be that of a combined Hamlet and King 
Lear — for, while to others Fanny is comedic, to 
him she represents earthly happiness, Fanny conr 
tinues her sobbing like an animal in pain. Doll Blon- 
din looks troubled, but stands her grownd, 

THE DEVIL (awkwardly) 
See here, Fanny — 



120 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act m 

FANNY {trying to stem Iter tears) 
Yes, dear — 

THE DEVIL 

It is n't any woman — it 's my work. It needs me 
— all of me — 

DOLL BLONDIN 

Then you don't love me? 
THE DEVIL (impatiently) 

Of course not. I only just saw you — did n't I? 

FANNY 

You don't love her? Your work? You 're giving 
me up for — 

THE DEVIL 

The good of humanity, Fanny — 
FANNY {forgetting tears) 

Ah, I knew you were too noble, Addington, too big 
to jilt me for another woman. " For the good of 
humanity ! " That 's different. We '11 work to- 
gether, dear. I '11 help, not hinder, 
\_The Devil groans, 

FANNY 

You 've brought out my true nature. I 'm changed. 
I see now how hateful I was. 

THE DEVIL 

Fanny — 

FANNY 

Yes, dear — 

THE DEVIL 

No! 

l^Doll Blondin catches his eye above Fanny^s head 
and winks hopefully. 
THE DEVIL {to Doll, in the same tone) 
No! 



ACT III] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 121 

\^Mrs. Felix cmd TroTnper enter, bimdled up for 
motoring. They are followed by Magnuses chauffeur 
and his valet carrying motoring coats, 

VALET 

Miss Felix, miss ! {He holds up her coat) 
[Fanny inserts her arms mechanically in sleeves, 
TROMPEE {grumpily, showing his watch to Schwartzen- 
hopfel) I took the liberty of getting ready to go 
back, Mr. Magnus. I thought you 'd forgotten the 
time. 

VALET 

You have an appointment for dinner with Mr. 
Gay ton, sir. 
[Schwartzenhopfel looks blank, 

VALET 

You know, sir — the Secretary of the Treasury — 
[The Devil nudges Schwartzenhopfel, 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (arrogantly) 

The Secretary must wait ; that 's all ! I 'm staying 
here tonight. 

THE DEVIL {sotto vocc to Agnus, indicating Tromper) 
Who's he? 

[Agnus whispers the information in a thoroughly 
miserable manner. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (to the chauffcur) 

You take these ladies back to New York. (To the 
valet) You go with him and bring me some clothes 
back. 

THE DEVIL 

Enough for a week or so. 

[The light shows that it is struck motionless by this 

last statement. 



122 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act iii 

And now, Mrs. Felix, good-bye! Come and see me 
some time. I '11 find a husband for you yet. 
l^The light flirts across his eyes, 

THE DEVIL (looks at it meditatively) 

I don't know but what you 're right, Magnus. After 
I start training you — she might be able to complete 
the training — 

scHWARTZENHOPFEL (viewing Mrs. Felix with ap- 
proval) Suits me! 

[The light darts as viciously at Schwartzenhopfel as 
the latter once did when he was in Magnus'' s condition, 

THE DEVIL (to the light) 
I meant you — Magnus — 
[The light hovers, sullenly suspicious, 

THE DEVIL (fO oll) 

And — now — good day to all of you. Schwartzen- 
hopfel and I are about to do some important work 
together. {Puts his arm on Agnus' s shoulder) So 
we must ask you to excuse us. 

DOLL BLONDIN 

And what about me? 

THE DEVIL 

Aren't the rooms good.'* 
[Doll Blondin nods, 

THE DEVIL 

And the food? 

[Doll Blondin nods again, 

THE DEVIL 

And the service? 

DOLL BLONDIN 

Yes — but — 



ACT in] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 123 

THE DEVIL 

Then what about you ? And as for amusement : why, 
there 's Magnus. (He points to Schwartzenhopfel. 
Then he goes, almost dragging Agnus with him) 
[Agnus^s head is turned, with lack-lustre eyes, 
toward Fanny, They pass out through the folding- 
doors, closing these behind them. 
TROMPER (whose indignation has been mounting, now 
vents himself explosively) Well, damn his nerve! I 
beg your pardon, ladies. Mr. Magnus, you let a 
whippersnapper doctor talk that way to you? You! 
Why, sir, I would n't — I actually would n't permit 
you to talk that way to me ! 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (viciOUsly) 

You would n't ? 
TROMPER (nervously) 

With all respect: no, sir. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Then you 're discharged. 

TROMPER ( thunderstruck) 

Have you gone crazy, Mr. Magnus? Discharged? 

After twenty-five years' service? After saving you 

hundreds of thousands of dollars? 
MRS. FELIX (putting her hand on his shoulder) 

John, that 's petty ! That 's small, John. I never 

knew you to be petty or small before. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (tO MrS. FcUx) 

Wait! (To Tromper) Saving? How? 
TROMPER (stuttering) 

Why, the Churchstead strike alone — 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (miUtantly) 

Strike! Ha! Go on! What did you do? 



124 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

TROMPER {Tmserably) 

You know well enough what I did, sir — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Tell me anyhow — 

TROMPEE 

I locked 'em out, the bums ! 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL ♦ 

What did they want? Just union rates, union hours ; 

white men's pay, white men's hours; not nigger 

slaves — ? 
MRS. FELIX ( admiringly) 

Bravo, John ! You 're shaping up ! 

l^The light moves closer, as if listening intently, 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (^nodding) 

I told you to wait ! ( To Tromper) You beat them, 

didn't you? 

TROMPER 

And a tough j ob ! Strike-breakers were n't enough — 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (to Mrs. Felix) 

New York thugs, gunmen — with brass knuckles, 
hand spikes, and automatics — licensed to bruise, 
maim and kill — 

TROMPER 

Were n't the strikers breaking windows and burning 
fences ? Did n't they threaten to burn the works ? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Fighting for their children and their homes, they 
were — for the right to have more than cattle or 
pigs — more than a place to sleep — and enough 
food to keep them working. Food! Ha! Like 
gasoline put into a motor-car — 



ACT m] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 125 

TilOMPER 

I was fighting to save you money — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Against the men you used to work with, side by side, 
your own blood-brothers — 

TROMPER 

No brothers of mine, those sweating, smelly igno- 
rant dogs ! I might have been born one. That 
was n't my fault. But I did n't stay one. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

No, and I '11 bet I know why. Because you spied on 

them, carried tales, for little foreman jobs, and 

sweated more work out of them. 
TROMPER (bitterly) 

Always saving you money — 
MRS. FELIX (to Schwartzenhopfel) 

You see, John: all crime, bloodshed, murder finally 

comes back to yourself. He said it : " Always saving 

you money.** 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

I 'm going to change all that. Consequently I don't 
need his sort any more. 

MRS. FELIX (delightedly) 

You are.'' (Suspiciously) But so suddenly — 
what 's changed you ? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (polnts towavd the laboratory) 
The — (corrects himself) D — Doctor. (Enthusi- 
astically) The trouble about us human beings is that 
we don't know nothing about nothing — 

MRS. FELIX 

Can't you be moral and retain your grammar? 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (disregarding her, enthusiasti- 
cally) Then he comes along (pointing toward labora- 



126 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act iii 

tory) and shows us that millionaires on one hand — 
anarchists on the other — are one part right, ninety- 
nine parts wrong — 

FANNY (bursts into wild tears again) 

And I 've lost him ! I 've lost him ! 

\^Mrs. Felix comforts her. 
scHWARTZENHOPFEL (to Tromper) 

How much have you saved? Not for me — for 

yourself? 

TROMPER (haughtily) 
I don't save ; I invest. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Worth half a million, are n't you? Not above graft- 
ing some of that sweat-and-blood money you saved 
for me, are you? 

TROMPER 

I defy you to prove it. I defy anybody. I 've been 
strictly honest. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

No matter, Tromper, no matter — you 're fired ! I 
never want to see your face again. 

TROMPER 

You '11 regret this the longest day you live, you — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Be careful. I still own the judges and the politi- 
cians. Don't try to stand in my way, or I'll job 
you into jail. Get out! 

TROMPER (suddenly whining) 

How am I to get back to New York? 

MRS. FELIX (touching SchwartzenhopfeVs shoulder) 
Don't be little, John — 



ACT m] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 127 

scHWARTZENHOPFEi. (repressing himself) 

The automobile will take you back. Wait for it at 

the Inn. 
TROMPER (thinking he is relenting) 

One word, sir — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Not one. (Points to the door) 

[Tromper goes out ahjectedly. 
SCHWARTZENHOPFEI. (tuming suddenly to valet) 

What do I pay you.'* 
VALET (alarmed on behalf of his own position) 

Only a hundred a month, sir. 

SCHW^ARTZENHOPFEL 

And what you can steal, eh.^* 
VALET (earnestly) 
Mr. Magnus, sir. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Percentages from haberdashers and shirt-makers, 
tailors, bootmakers, jewellers. Double bills: one for 
me, one for you — you pocket the difference.'* 
VALET (astounded at his accuracy) 
Mr. Magnus, I swear — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Don't perjure yourself. Take one hundred and 
fifty dollars a month — I 'm buying back your self- 
respect with the extra fifty and giving it to you. But 
if you cheat again — remember, if you cheat again 
— jail! 
VALET (with tears in his eyes and choking voice) 
Sir — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Wait in there. (Points to the door^ and the valet 
goes out; then to chauffeur) And I give you? 



128 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act iii 

CHAUFFEUR (tremhUng) 

One hundred and twenty-five dollars a month, sir. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

And the gasoline you take out every night and put 
back in the morning? The extra shoes that don't 
wear out? The valve-cleaning and new parts that 
only figure in the bill ? Other things — how much 
do they come to? 

CHAUFFEUR 

Mr. Magnus — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Don't lie. Please — how much? 
CHAUFFEUR (wMning) 

I don't know, sir. Please — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Take one seventy-five and be a decent man — a 
skilled mechanic who respects himself and his craft 
too much to be a thief. Will that do? 
CHAUFFEUR (tJiicMy) 

If they all treated us like that, nobuddy 'ud steal 
except dirty scoundrels, sir. (Goes out) 

MRS. FELIX 

You see: the generals make the morals of their sol- 
diers. Let generals loot a church-treasure, and the 
privates will loot a hen-roost. Magnus steals a Sub- 
way. Therefore, his manager steals his profits, his 
valet steals his stickpins, his chauffeur his gasohne. 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Reform always begins at the top, I know. The 
trouble with us — (corrects himself) with Socialists 
and anarchists — they try to begin reforms among 
the ignorant. It will take me many years to break 
even with my criminal misunderstanding. 



ACT III] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 129 

MRS. FELIX {suddenly touched) 

I '11 help you. {In a whisper) I love you, John — 
[The light jumps, 

MRS. FELIX {with her hand on his shoulder) 

I 've always wanted to say " Yes " — always hoped 
for the day when your great brain would resent 
the petty use you were making of it — 

[Fanny does not hear this. For some time she has 
been sitting all humped up, starvng blankly into 
space, Doll Blondin sits in same position, showing 
the same attitude, and the same lack of expression. 
The two of them look more like decorative statues 
than human beings, one on either side of the room. 
The light flies about distractedly. Mrs, Felix slowly 
drawing the startled Schwartzenhopfel around until 
he faces her and stares into her eyes, 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL {stuttcrs) 

When I 'm — wor — worthy, I — I '11 ask you to 
say " Yes " again — I don't de — deserve you yet — 
[Doll Blondin turns wearily around to watch them, 
Fanny does the same. The light pauses, satisfied, 

MRS. FELIX 

John Magnus — you 're a great man at last — 
{Smiling shyly, she practically offers her cheek to be 
kissed) Remember my worthless years, too, and con- 
sider you 're worthy now — , 
[The light begins again to fly about distractedly. 
Schwartzenhopfel looks at it apologetically before 
he bends over to kiss her. The light deliberately 
flashes between them. Both of them stand back 
dazzled. 



130 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act iii 

MRS. FELIX (blinking) 

What a powerful reflection! (Smiling and holding 

out her hand to Schwai'tzenhopfel, she bends toward 

him again) 

[The light again flashes between them, 
MRS. FELIX (^as they stagger back again) 

What is it, John.'^ I see no mirrors or lenses — 

DOLL BLONDiN (who has been watching the light i/n an 
awed way ever since she turned^) It does n't come 
from mirrors or lenses, (/tj an awed tone) There 's 
something queer about that light — almost as if it 
were human — 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL 

Non — nonsense ! 
MRS. FELIX (^noting his look) 

John Magnus ! You — frightened ? 
DOLL BLONDIN (pointing to the light) 

Look at it now, as though it was listening ! 

FANNY (with a little cry) 

Mother ! mother ! Forgive me — 

MRS. FELIX (patting her hair) 
Forgive you — why, my dear ? 

FANNY (shivering) 

I don't know — but I 'm afraid. — There 's some- 
thing wrong in this house — 

\^The light twitches as if trying to sneak out of the 
room. 

FANNY (with a little scream) 
Look at it — now ! 

\_The light stands still. The three women huddle to- 
gether with that feminine instinct that prefers to die 
with its worst enemy rather than alone. 



ACT m] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 131 

DOLL BLONDIN 

Whenever he made a move to even touch you, it flew 
at him — 
FANNY (shrieking) 
It moved again ! 

[^Mrs. Felix clutches Schmartzenhopfel, Fanny gives 
another short scream. At that moment the folding- 
doors fly open and Agnus reenters quickly , disclos- 
ing The Demi inside. 

THE DEVIL (with his eye to microscope^ examining slide) 
As well as I could do myself ! Bravo ! Bravissima ! 

AGNUS (agitated) 

Can I do anything? (Sees the tableau of the three 
frightened women^ clinging to Schwartzenhopfel; his 
eyes follow theirs^ and he sees that they are watching 
the light; then he falls back, holding his head) 

DOLL BLONDIN (sccing Agnus^s look) 

See ! He 's frightened, too. 
THE DEVIL (puts up the mlcroscope and comes out) 

What 's wrong? 
FANNY (running to him) 

Addington, Addington! 
DEVIL (wearily) 

Not gone yet? 
FANNY (pointing to the ligtit, which twitches sullenly) 

Addington, I 'm frightened. What is it? 
THE DEVIL (shaken, but retaining his mastery) 

Oh — that? (He tries to move over to the table and 

shake Fanny off) 

FANNY 

Oh, Addington, don't leave me ! I 'm frightened, I 
tell you, frightened ! 



(^simultaneously) 



132 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

THE DEVII, 

I thought you wanted to know what that was? 

MKS. FELIX 

What is it? 

DOLL BLONDIN 

Yes, what? 

FANNY 

We do — 

THE DEVIL (to Fanny in an irritated tone) 

Well, how can I explain while you hang on to me ? — 

FANNY 

Just let me hold one hand — just your little finger 
— that '11 make me brave — 

[The Devil crosses to the table, scowling. Fanny tags 
after him, holding on to one of his fingers. The Devil 
looks sternly at the light. Then he turns to the 
women and touches the switch-key of tlie lighted 
electric cigar-lighter. 

THE DEVIL 

When I turn this off, it will disappear! (^He waits 

for Magnus to understand. Then, showily, he snaps 

off the electric-lighter, bending down as if it required 

some effort) You see? 

\The light does not budge. 
DOLL BLONDIN (sijice Fanny is looking admiringly at 

The Devil and Mrs. Felix is hiding her head on 

SchwartzenhopfeVs shoulder) 

But it did n't work ! — 
THE DEVIL (looking up and seeing it, nonplussed and 

desperate) 

No? 

DOLL BLONDIN 

No. There it is. See? 



ACT m] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 133 

THE DEVIL {holdly) 

Nonsense. {He -fixes her with his eyes) It 's gone: 

d' jou hear? It 's gone! 
DOLL BLONDiN (fascinatedly watching him) 

It 's gone? 

MRS. FELIX 

But / see it ! 
THE DEVIL {fixing her with his eyes) 

Nonsense. It's gone, d' you hear? Gone! 
MRS. FELIX {with the same expression as Doll) 

Gone ? 

\_Fanny looks up. 
THE DEVIL {catching her eye before she can look at the 

light) You see, it's gone, don't you? Gone? 
FANNY {in the same manner as others) 

Gone? 

THE DEVIL 

And now, why have n't you — gone ? 

FANNY 

And leave her in the house? {Nodding toward Doll) 

THE DEVIL 

Is it your house? 
FANNY {boldly) 

Yes, it is ! 
THE DEVIL {taken aback) 

What? 

FANNY 

Our house! {Sweetly) And, Addington, dear: it 
could be mine if I sued you for breach of promise! 
You know I 'd win — your letters are so dear ! And 
the engagement announcement that was in ail the 
papers — and our pictures together in that Sunday 
Supplement — I can't imagine where they get those 



134 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

pictures, can you? Framed heart-shape with the 
dearest little Cupids shooting arrows at us — you 
know, how you loved it — 
THE DEVIL (revolted) 
I loved it ! 

FANNY (continuing) 

And your money 's in trust, dear. You can't touch 
the principal. So you 'd have to sell this house to 
pay my damages. And you know I would n't let 
you sell it, not to strangers — I 'd just come and 
live in it, going about every day and kissing things 
I knew your dear hands had touched, and sitting in 
your favorite places, waiting for the day you 'd 
come back and we 'd sit there together ! 
l^The Devil grits his teeth, 

FANNY (almost cloyingly sweet) 

Oh, you could come here every day and work in 
your laboratory. I 'd let you — you 'd be quite 
welcome — 

DOLL BLONDiN (her sense of humor triumphing) 

You 're some sticker, sister — I gotta hand it to you. 
Talk about glue ! 

THE DEVIL (desperately) 

You would n't do that — your womanly instinct — 
your sense of shame — your position in society — 

DOLL BLONDIN 

No use grasping at straws like that. Doctor. You 're 
gone! 

MRS. FELIX (in wonderment) 

I never imagined she had it in her. (Mildly) 
There 's no doubt she loves you, Addington. No 
girl would endure the insults you 've heaped on her 



ACT ni] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 135 

today — (hastily) not that she did n't deserve 
them — 

FANNY (naively) 

I did — I was a selfish beast — 

MES. FELIX 

She wouldn't have admitted she was a beast just 
now — unless she loved you — madly — 
THE DEVIL (bitterly) 

She knows I 've got a check for two million in my 
pocket — 

FANNY 

Oh, I know I deserve that, too. But I wish you 
did n't have the old check just to prove to you — 

THE DEVIL 

You do? 
FANNY (hastily) 

No. I don't mean that. Forgive me for being selfish. 

The check means triumph for your work — 
THE DEVIL (grinning maliciously) 

Means houses in New York, and motors, and private 

railroad cars, and boxes at the opera, too, does n't 

it? 
FANNY (earnestly) 

Addington, I 'd be content to live on the top of a 

mountain if I had you, dear. 

THE DEVIL 

That 's all right as a popular song, darling ! (He 
grits his teeth again) 
AGNUS (in agony) 

She means it, can't you see? She's changed. The 
fear of losing the man she loves has made her forget 



136 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

all the little things — realizing that the only big 
thing is — love ! — 

FANNY 

Oh, Mr. Schwartzenhopfel, you have loved! You 

understand. Make him understand — 
THE DEVIL {to Agnus) 

You sentimental idiot! You think she means it, do 

you.? 
AGNUS (boldly) 

I know it! 
DOLL BLONDiN (hevself toucJied) 

Honest, Doctor, I believe she does. 

[Fanny looks gratefully at them, 
THE DEVIL (desperately) 

You see this.? (He thrusts the check under her 

nose) What is it? 

FANNY 

The two-million-dollar check. 

THE DEVIL 

All right. (He puts it in her hand) Tear it up ! 
PANNY (paling) 

But — Addington — your work — 
THE DEVIL (with a sneer to Agnus) 

You see.? (To Doll) See.? 
FANNY (joyously) 

I see, too ! It 's wrong, but it makes me the happiest 

girl in the world. 
THE DEVIL (exasperated) 

What does.? 

FANNY 

It 's wicked for me to feel that way — I know I 
should n't. — Forgive me. 



ACT III] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 137 

THE DEVIL (shouting) 

What damned mare's-nest have you foisted on me 
this time? What 's the latest crazy eroticism you 're 
going to pretend to see in me? 

FANNY 

Don't swear, dear. You 're above it. But as for 
the check: I understand and I love you the more 
for it. 
THE DEVIL {shouting louder) 

Love me the more? By Saturn! this is too much — 
this passes all endurance — 

FANNY 

You 're angry because I 've discovered your secret. 
Because you know now that I know that no matter 
how much you try to make your work come first, you 
can't. 
THE DEVIL (swearing mildly) 

Oh, Jupiter ! Oh, the Pleiades ! Oh, the Milky Way, 
the Crab, and the Gemini ! — Where under the 
light of the sun or in the bowels of the earth — in 
what corner of a lunatic asylum did you find that 
colossal, preposterous and utterly insane hallucina- 
tion of a disordered brain? 

FANNY 

In your heart, dear — in your heart. This morn- 
ing I made you give up work that was dearer to you 
than life. You promised. Your better nature made 
you break that promise. Then I came again, tempt- 
ing you; threatening to leave you forever. Your 
heart betrayed you again. And — when I was gone 
— you loathed yourself for your weakness. 
THE DEVIL (reduced to the frigid politeness of a man 
who realizes he will be stricken with apoplexy if he 



138 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

allows his feelings to get the better of him again) I — 
I see — and now I should like to know — what was 
the President of China thinking while in his bath this 
morning? — 

FANNY (^placidly, seeing in his loss of control her own 
dominance of the situation) Don't sneer, darling. 
You loathed yourself for giving in to me a second 
time. " Even though my heart is broken, I will cast 
her out of it," you said sternly. 

THE DEVIL 

Just like the kind of novels you read, was n't it? 

FANNY 

You had been so modest, dear, that I did n't realize 
you were a great man. That was your fault. " She 
does n't love me," you said, " or she 'd want me to 
go on winning Nobel prizes and being a great man. 
All she loves is the money I can make." {^Triumph- 
antly) Am I right? Is n't that what you thought? 

THE DEVIL {wildly) 

You 're never right ! And I never think. 

AGNUS 

You are right — you are ! 
THE DEVIL {looking morosely at him) 
I '11 settle with you later — 
[Agnus i terrified, remains silent, 

FANNY 

Don't be ashamed to concede a woman's wit, dear. 
It 's all your teaching. Today you taught me to 
use my brain. " All she loves is the money I can 
make," you said — 

THE DEVIL 

You said I said that once — 



ACT m] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 139 

FANNY (unheeding) 

And you still believe it? Don't you? 

THE DEVIL 

Yes. 

FANNY 

I know you do. That 's why you gave me the check. 
Sooner than marry me — thinking that I was play- 
ing a part until I could get control of the two mil- 
lion dollars — sooner than be married for your 
money you said: "Tear it up." And that shows 
you love me more than your work, more than your 
future fame, more than the gratitude of the world — 
more than humanity — more than everything. And 
it makes me love you more than ever. (^She takes his 
hand) 

THE DEVIL (almost in a shrill scream) 
Love me more than ever? 

FANNY (hurt) 

You don't believe in me, yet? 

THE DEVIL (as before) 
No! No! No! 

FANNY 

Then — I 'm sorry for you. Sorry for your work, 
your fame, your future. But if I can't make you 
believe in me any other way, why — then — here 
goes. (She twists up the cheeky strikes a match and 
lights it; following an old childish game, she says) 
He loves me, he loves me not ; loves me, loves me 
not. (The flame scorches her fingers, hut she holds 
it long enough to say) He loves me! (Then she 
throws the last blazing bit into ash-receiver and 
throws her arms around The Devil) 



140 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act iii 

MRS. FELIX (^judicially) 

I think now — Addington — you can be sure ! 
THE DEVIL (wrenching himself free) 

Damn it ! — Does n't she know that if Magnus will 

write one check, he '11 write another ! 
FANNY (her lip drawn) 

Oh, I forgot that! I forgot that! (Sobbing on her 

mother^ s breast) Oh, mammy, what can I do to 

prove it to him? This is my punishment — this is 

my punishment! 
DOLL BLONDiN (to The Devil, herself in tears) 

She 's on the square with that stuff, old boy. Don't 

be a devil ! 
THE DEVIL (suddenly realizing) 

A devil : that 's what I am — a devil. No human 

being would act as I'm doing, would he? 
DOLL BLONDIN (judicially) 

Oh, you '11 come out of it, now you see the girl 's all 

right, won't you? 

THE DEVIL 

But suppose I did n't? 
DOLL BLONDIN (indignantly) 

Then you would be a devil! Not fit to associate 

with human beings. 
FANNY (crying to her mother) 

Can't you think of something I can do to prove I 'm 

not the same girl who came here this morning? 
MRS. FELIX (crying) 

It 's my fault. If I 'd been a good mother, instead 

of a good bridge'player — 
AGNUS (agonizedly) 

Oh! for God's sake! Can't something be done? I '11 

kill myself — 



ACT m] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 141 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (^who has olso becii movedy says 
now sharply) Here, here! {In a hoarse whisper) 
Don't you go taking such liberties with what don't 
belong to you. 

THE DEVIL {who has been musing on what Doll has 
said) 

Not fit to associate with human beings. No, I guess 
not. (Looking at Schwartzenhopfel) I should have 
remained the Dutchman with no human ties. Senti- 
ment and romance just make me ill. 

DOLL BLONDiN {indignantly) 

Shame on you ! {She goes over to comfort the other 
two women) 

THE DEVIL {still musing) 

I suppose that 's how The Devil got his bad name. 
Trying to cure Faust of Marguerite in order to use 
him for the world's advancement. Same ingratitude, 
same mix-up; everybody calling me names. {Sharply 
to Schwartzenhopfel^ who has listened) Very incor- 
rectly reported, even at that — very unjustly — that 
Faust affair. Those stupid Germans — when they 're 
not drinking themselves into sentimental poetry, the 
ravings of a disordered brain, they 're guzzling 
themselves into gloomy philosophy — the pessimism 
of a disordered liver — and the fellow who wrote up 
the Faust-Marguerite case had both maladies {vi- 
ciously) in their most virulent form ! And that 's 
what most humans get their idea of me from — when, 
actually, the case was just about like this one — 
{meditatively) I wonder what I did to straighten 
things out that time.? {Meditates) 
[All the others watch him in awe. 



142 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act iii 

FANNY {lifting a tear-stained face, whispers) 
What is he saying, mammy? Is it about me? 

THE DEVIL {giving the Faust rnatter up) 
No use, I forget — 

AGNUS {piteously) 

You will do something, won't you? 

THE DEVIL {sadly) 

I suppose I '11 have to. Humanity has to suffer as 
usual. Sentiment, always sentiment, maudlin senti- 
ment : that 's what keeps abuses unrectified, men ig- 
norant, women slaves, the world's intellect develop- 
ing no faster than a snail crawls. Sentiment — 
maudlin sentiment — and I 've lived so long among 
men that the cancer 's in me, too — 

AGNUS 

You have got a heart then — they did wrong you. 
I '11 devote years to setting you right in the eyes of 
the world. 

THE DEVIL 

What? 

AGNUS {stammering) 
A book! 

THE DEVIL {harshly) 

Set me right in men's eyes? Have my conduct 
applauded by stupid human beings? When the 
world applauds anybody whole-heartedly, without a 
dissenting voice, be sure he 's a fool or a knave ! 
Your whole being has been in arms against me ever 
since I came to bring you wisdom. Now that you 
think there 's a chance I '11 let you be a fool again, 
you talk of setting me right ! Let me be or I '11 
repent it. {To Fanmy) What would you do if I 
made you realize that I don't and can't love you? 



ACT III] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 143 

FANNY 

I know you do. 

THE DEVIL 

But you can't make me marry you ? 

FANNY 

You would n't want the scandal of a suit discrediting 
you with the world? 

THE DEVIL 

You 'd do that, loving me ? 
FANNY {gently) 

To bring you to your senses. You would be 
unhappy without me. 

THE DEVIL 

And unhappy with you. 

FANNY 

Not after the change that has come over me today. 
THE DEVIL (throming up both hands) 

Useless — useless ! I give in — I 'm vanquished. 

FANNY 

Love conquers all, dear — 

THE DEVIL 

Oh, those damned novels! (Fending her off) Wait! 
Go in there! The three of 3^ou. (He points to the 
hall door) Tell the chauffeur to get ready to go 
back to New York, Fanny. 

FANNY 

One kiss, dear! 

[^The Devil sighs heavily as he permits it, 
FANNY (i/n rapture) 

My dear one ! My dearest ! 

[The Devil points to door. Fanny goes with Mrs, 

Felix, 



144 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act m 

THE DEVIL (to Doll) 

You, too! 

\_Doll Blondin shrugs her shoulders and goes after 

the other two women. 

THE DEVIL (throwing himself down in utter weari/ness) 
I give in. I must find another body — go through 
another sentimental riot before I can begin my work 
here again. Bernard Shaws don't grow in every 
village or every London. (He rises and crosses 
toward the window) Oh, Mars ! Mars ! I 'm home- 
sick again. (He stretches out his hands) Only a 
day away from you, and homesick already : homesick, 
how homesick I am — 

AGNUS (trembling eagerly) 

I know, we 're not advanced enough for you yet. 
Why don't you go back and wait until we are.'* 

THE DEVIL (turning on him with a terrible look) 
Man ! If I only could : if I only could ! But this is 
my punishment, and here — (waves all about him) 
is my hell. You — all of you — my friends, my 
familiars, my imps, the red fellows that frightened 
your own youthful dreams. Here is the fiery pit — 
here ! But you are the Devils, and I am the tortured 
soul. You are the flames — I am the burning body. 
Yes, you : — for here is where Devils rule — this 
Earth is Hell! (At the window, his hands out- 
stretched) Here I am debased, my sullen angers 
stirred, my soul held back from the Sun by inhuman 
humans who spend their lives stanching a pretty 
woman's tears, while a hundred thousand fellow- 
creatures die for the want of a pound of summer ice, 
a basket of winter fuel! You: who worship a Man 
of Peace, and make bloody war in His Name; who 
worship a Prince of Purity, and wed the women of 



ACT in] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 145 

your lust in His Name; who worship a Poor 
Man's Christ, and in the same breath those who 
steal the Poor Man's Bread — in His Name. 
{Looks up to the sky) You said I had ruled long 
enough, Crucified One ! So you came to do through 
men's Love what I had done through men's Hate, 
Lust and Greed. So you died for men, and 
thereafter men called hate Anger Against The 
Heathen ; lust — the Woman Leading Them to 
Holier Things ; greed — World Conquest in your 
Name. (Drops on his knees) I see you ever. Son 
of the Sun, sad and weary in that bright star of 
your exile; hoping against hope that a stray seed 
sown two thousand years ago may yet bring men to 
wisdom through Love. While I still go on among 
them to bring them to Wisdom through Understand- 
ing, teaching them that Ignorance and Hate bring 
no gain — the only reasoning they can understand. 
And so sustained by you in your lonely star, while 
you shine on hoping men will look up, ever up — I 
work bitterly among them here below — until I 
have won Wisdom for them and Freedom for us; 
freedom that we may go on to our Father, the Sun, 
we two Exiles ; Star of the Morning, and Red 
Light of Mars ! ( While speaking thus, he seems 
irradiated with a light hardly seen, only felt — a 
dim suffusing glow; he stands for a second statue- 
like; then, as the glow fades, he says gently to 
Agnus) Are you ready? 
[Agnus hows his head. 

THE DEVIL (to Schwartzenhopfel) 
And you, too? 
[^Schwartzenhopfel bows his head. 



146 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

THE DEVIL 

Then one word before I lose the power to speak. 
When I hover above you again — a Red Light 
again — I will wait to see you^ Magnus, and you too, 
Agnus, each do a single thing. And when I have 
seen each of you do that one thing, I will know you 
have begun to carry out my teachings — and the 
Red Light will fade away in search of a new body 
and a new fortune. {A ring at the garden door 
interrupts him) I will tell you — in there. (^He 
points to the laboratory) 

l^AgnuSy Schwartzenhopfel and the light go out 
hurriedly f The Devil following. He is last seen by 
the audience, suffused in the glow again, as he stands 
^between the two folding-doors, bringing them close 
together until they shut the laboratory and all 
within it from sight. The ringing at the door grows 
louder and is followed by a series of staccato knocks 
with a knocker. Mrs. Felix opens the hall door and 
shows her face. 

MRS. FELIX (^speaking to Fanny outside) 

There 's no one here. I suppose I should answer the 
door ? 

FANNY {outside) 

By all means, mother. 

[Mrs. Felix goes to the garden door. Fanny trails 
in after her. Mrs. Felix opens garden door for Pro- 
fessor Vanillity. 

VANiLLiTY (^who comcs in excitedly) 

I must see Addington, Mrs. Felix! At once! At 
once — 

MRS. FELIX (pointing to the laboratory) 
He 's in there. 



ACT III] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 147 

VANILLITY 

I must interrupt him once at least — at least once. 
(^He knocks at %the laboratory door — no response 
— knocks again — no response) 

VANILLITY {desperately) 

I can't help it : I must see him. 

[He -flings open the laboratory door, revealing the 
room with its blinds drawn and Agnus, Schwartzen- 
hopfel and Magnus seated in a sort of stupor, side 
by side. Above them hovers a Red Light, 

VANILLITY 

Addington, my boy! Addington! (He shakes him) 
[Agnus opens his eyes slowly and sees Vanillity, 

VANILLITY 

Addington — just a moment alone — 

AGNUS (joyously) 

Addington. — You called me Addington. — Then 
it's so — it's so. (He brushes past Vanillity^ runs 
i/nito the room, disregarding women, and throws back 
curtain from mirror) It's so! It's so! (Sees 
Fanny) Fanny ! 

FANNY (comes toward him eagerly) 

The actress is gone, dear. She said she would n't 
stand in the way of our happiness once I convinced 
her how much you loved me. I helped her re-pack 
her trunks. (Puts her hands out to Agnus) 

VANILLITY (taking him aside before he can take 

Fanny^s hands) One minute, my boy, one minute. 

(Leads him up-stage so that their backs become 

turned to the others) 
MAGNUS (in the meanwhile has opened his eyes a/nd sees 

Agnus at mirror; as Agnus Tnoves up stage. 



148 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act hi 

he runs to mirror and sees himself) It 's so — 
it 's so — 

VANiLLiTY (in a low tone to Agnus, not seeing Magnus 
at mirror) My boy, I 've been eating out my heart 
all day for permitting you to accept that offer. 
But Judge Critty can break me like matchwood, just 
as Mr. Magnus can break him. So I seemed to 
consent. But I do not. Don't take the offer. 
[Schwartzenhopfely who has also opened his eyes and 
come down to the mirror, now touches Magnuses arm 
and nods approval of Vanillity, 

VANILLITY 

It 's damnable — 

MAGNUS (who has turned to listen, motioning Mrs. 
Felix and Fanny to silence) Damnable? — 

VANILLITY (turning around, white and trembling) 
Mr. Magnus ! (Recovering himself, with dignity) 
I will tender my resignation tomorrow, sir. 

MAGNUS 

Why.? 
VANILLITY (bitterly) 

Don't trifle with a broken man, sir. My university 
is in your debt. The Judge is your mouthpiece. 
What you tell him to ask, my university will not 
dare to refuse! 

MAGNUS 

I will tell the Judge nothing! 
VANILLITY (gasping) 
1 — I — what, sir ? 

MAGNUS 

But I will tell the president of your university that 
he is old enough to be a President Emeritus — with 



ACT in] THE RED LIGHT OF MARS 149 

a pension — and I will name his successor — 
(pauses) Professor Thomas Vanillity — 

VANiLLiTY (trembling) 

I can't believe it, sir. You 're amusing yourself with 

me. 

\_Magnus shakes his head. 
VANILLITY (desperately) 

Then — why ? 

MAGNUS 

For proving you are not of Judge Critty s stripe; 
for risking your position at your age; for braving 
the anger of the rich and powerful, to save your 
friend. We need such men as you to work with us — 
(smiling and holding out his arm toward Mrs, 
Felix) the future Mrs. Magnus and I — 
[Mrs. Felix comes forward, 

MAGNUS 

Loo! 

SCHWAET2ENH0PFEL (uods toward the Red Light) 
Your promise! 

MAGNUS (remembers and motions Mrs. Felix bade) 
One minute! (Then sits down at the desk and takes 
out his check-book) 

AGNUS (warmly) 

Mr. Magnus, the Professor feels too strongly to 
speak. (He pats Vanillity on back; then turns to 
Fan/ny) Fanny ! 
[Schwartzenhopfel nudges him, 

AGNUS (turning from Fanny) 
Eh? 

SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (UftS Ms eyCs) 

Your promise! 



DEC 9 1913^0 

150 THE RED LIGHT OF MARS [act iii 

AGNUS (follows SchwartzenJiopfeVs glance and sees 

the Red Light) Oh, yes — thanks. (Raises his 

hand to hold Fanny back) 
MAGNUS (twirling check over shoulder to dry it) 

The torn-up check, Agnus. (Rises) Loo! (Puts 

his arm about Mrs. Felix) 

[The Red Light wags, 
AGNUS (deliberately seating himself with his eyes on the 

Red Light) Get the check, Fanny. (He takes a 

cigarette from his case) 

FANNY 

Yes, dear. (She goes for it) 

[Agnus places the cigarette in his mouth, Fanny 

returns with the check, 

AGNUS 

A light, please — 

FANNY 

Yes, dear. (She reaches for the cigar-lighter, turns 
it on and lifts it forward to him) 
[Agnus ignites the cigarette, looking at the Red 
Light. The Red Light wags, pleased. It is growing 
dark outside — an early winter^ s evening. A star 
appears. 
AGNUS (patting Fanny* s hand) 

That 's a good girl ! I 'm sure — now you 've had 

your lesson, we '11 be very happy together. (He 

puffs at the cigarette) 

[The Red Light flies out of the window and 

disappears, 

CURTAIN 




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